Gender differences in parental mental health: A life course approach

Abstract

Mental health differences between men and women are well documented, but the timing, causes, and mechanisms driving these disparities across the life course remain insufficiently understood. The transition to parenthood is a key gendered life course event, involving substantial individual changes that tend to reinforce specialised gender roles. These parenthood-related changes may result in distinct mental health responses among men and women when becoming parents, potentially contributing to the existing gender gaps in mental health. Yet, evidence on whether and how the transition into parenthood shapes gendered mental health is mixed, suggesting important complexity in this relationship that still needs to be explored. This thesis, therefore, examines the dynamic association between parenthood transitions and gendered mental health, using large-scale panel data, a comprehensive mental health outcome measure, and robust longitudinal modelling. The primary aim is to (a) provide a cohesive analysis of the gendered processes surrounding parenthood transitions and (b) assess the extent to which parenthood serves as a key life course link between gender and mental health. This is achieved through four self-contained but interconnected empirical studies. Study 1 examines gendered mental health trajectories across the transition to parenthood in the UK and assesses the extent to which parenthood affects different sub-domains of mental health, as well as trajectory differences by socioeconomic status (SES). The results show that, overall, women experience greater improvements in mental health after childbirth than men. However, results also show that despite increases in positive affect (e.g., happiness) and long-lasting improvements in role and social functioning, there are concurrent increases in negative affect (e.g., stress) and fatigue during the care-intensive years. Lastly, results show that higher SES women experience reduced mental health benefits from parenthood, suggesting a potential mental health disadvantage of motherhood in these groups. This study documents the complex and conflicting mental health consequences of parenthood among men and women. Study 2 uses large-scale longitudinal Australian household data to examine the role of changes in time use in shaping gendered mental health trajectories across the transition to parenthood. Results show that after the birth of their first child, women experience significant reductions in paid work and large increases in housework time, whereas men's time use is unchanged, and that these changes are disadvantageous for women’s mental health. Results from longitudinal mediation analyses show that the changes in hours of housework and in the division of paid work time between partners suppress some of the positive effect of parenthood on women’s mental health, but do not substantially affect their improving trajectories following birth. Overall, this study is the first to explore the dynamic relationship between time use and mental health in the transition to parenthood by assessing how co-occurring time use changes relate to gendered mental health trajectories. Study 3 is the first to combine a cross-national approach with a longitudinal perspective to examine how gendered mental health trajectories around parenthood transitions compare across countries (Australia, Germany, United Kingdom) across socioeconomic groups and childcare use. Results show that mental health improves with the first child in all countries, especially for women, but also indicate greater cross-national variations as parity increases. SES-based heterogeneity in trajectories is minimal across all countries, but clearer trajectory patterns emerge when differentiating by the used childcare arrangements: women who never use formal childcare fare worse as parity increases in all countries than women who make use of in all countries. In general, the study suggests that policy-constrained choices, such as the use of formal childcare, may play a role in explaining differences in mental health trajectories among women. While Studies 1-3 focus solely on within-individual mental health trends, Study 4 explores between-individual heterogeneity in the mental health trajectories of first-time parents. It identifies several latent heterogeneous patterns of parental mental health trajectories using an explorative, data-driven approach. Results show that the majority of first-time parents share a stable mental health trajectory across the transition to parenthood, while the remaining parents are distributed across groups characterised by lower average levels of mental health, with dissimilar trajectory patterns and greater fluctuations around birth. First-time mothers are more likely than men to be in the groups with lower mental health that show steeper declines in the post-birth period, compared to the group with high and stable mental health. These findings support the need for greater support for the subgroup of more vulnerable first-time parents, and particularly mothers, with lower baseline mental health, who may be more likely to experience adverse parenthood-related changes.