Do longer job hours matter for maternal mental health? A longitudinal analysis of single versus partnered mothers

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

September 5, 2024

Summary:

Over the past decade, single mothers have experienced increasing work requirements both in the UK and in other developed countries. Our aim was to examine if increasing job hours are associated with mental health of single mothers compared to partnered mothers. Using 13 waves of the Understanding Society Survey (2009–2023), we estimated the relationship between changing job hours and mental health using difference-in-difference event study design, accounting for differential treatment effects across time and individuals. We also investigated the role of potential mechanisms, including role strain and additional income. Our findings suggest that increasing job hours from part-time to full-time is associated with an instantaneous decrease in mental health of 0.19 standard deviations for single mothers [95% CI: −0.37;−0.01], with no effect for partnered mothers. Further analyses suggest increased role strain for single mothers as a mechanism helping explain these differences. The negative effects of increasing job hours and increased role strain should be considered when developing future welfare policies for single mothers, to ensure that greater work requirements do not undermine the mental health of the already vulnerable population group.

Published in

Health Economics

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4895

ISSN

10579230

Subjects

Notes

Online Early

Open Access

© 2024 The Author(s). Health Economics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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