Unpaid domestic work: persistence of gender-based labor division and mental disorders

Evaluating characteristics of unpaid domestic work and its association with mental disorders, exploring gender differences.

We analyzed cross-sectional data from the second wave of an urban population cohort (n = 2,841) aged 15 and older from a medium-sized city in Bahia (BA). The representative population sample was randomly selected in subsequent multiple steps. We interviewed the survey participants at their homes. This study analyzed sociodemographic, occupational, unpaid domestic work and mental illness data, stratified by sex (gender). We investigated the association between the work-family-personal time conflict, the effort-reward imbalance in domestic and family work and the occurrence of common mental disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder and depression. We estimated prevalence, prevalence ratios and their respective 95% confidence intervals.

Among the participants, the unpaid domestic activities were performed by 71.3% of men and 95.2% of women, who were responsible for the investigated activities, except for minor repairs. The percentages of paid work were higher among men (68.1% versus 47.2% among women). The distribution of stressors and conflict experiences showed an inverse situation between genders: men depicted the highest high percentage of low work-family-personal time conflict (39.0%), while among women, the highest percentage was of high conflict (40.0%); 45.8% of the men reported low effort-reward imbalance in domestic and family work, while only 28.8% of women reported low imbalance. The investigated mental disorders were more prevalent among women, who showed a significant association between work-family-personal time conflict and common mental disorders, as well as depression; among men, conflict was positively associated with common mental disorders. The effort-reward imbalance, in turn, was strongly related to CMD (Common Mental Disorders), generalized anxiety disorder and depression among women. Amid men, this discrepancy was only associated to depression.

Domestic work persists as a mostly feminine assigned activity. The stressful situations of unpaid domestic work and the work-family-personal time conflict were more strongly associated with adverse effects on the female mental health.