Given the outbreak of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), pandemic during March 2020, lockdown measures taken by governments have forced many families, especially those who have children, to re-arrange domestic and market work division. In this study, I investigate the factors associated with partnered and employed individuals’ involvement with housework during the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom. Drawing evidence from the first wave of the Covid-19 Survey from the Five National Longitudinal Studies dataset with using OLS regressions, this study found that daily working hours, socioeconomic status, and partner’s key worker status are important indicators of daily time spent on housework. Furthermore, interaction analysis showed that women living with a key worker partner not only did more housework than women whose partner was working in a regular job, but they also did more housework than men living with a key worker partner during the lockdown. Policy implications of regulating maximum daily working hours and key worker status are discussed in the context of re-arranging paid and unpaid work between couples during the first lockdown in the United Kingdom.

Citation: Sönmez, I ̇brahim. 2021. A Missed Opportunity for Men? Partnered and Employed Individuals’ Involvement with Housework during the COVID-19 Lockdown in the UK. SocialSciences10: 135. https:// doi.org/10.3390/socsci10040135

The lockdown implemented by the French government in response to the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 meant that people were ordered to stay at home, with an exception for essential tasks and essential workers. 21 percent of French people increased their consumption of cereal products during this time. The fact these products keep well, so people did not have to go grocery shopping every day, and that there was more time to cook than usual were the two main reasons put forward by respondents for this change in eating habits.

BackgroundThere is an urgent need to better understand the factors that predict mental wellbeing in vocationally active adults during globally turbulent times.AimTo explore the relationship between psychological detachment from work (postulated as a key recovery activity from work) in the first national COVID-19 lockdown with health, wellbeing, and life satisfaction of working age-adults one year later, within the context of a global pandemic.MethodsWellbeing of the Workforce (WoW) was a prospective longitudinal cohort study, with two waves of data collection (Time 1, April-June 2020: T1 n = 337; Time 2, March-April 2021: T2 = 169) corresponding with the first and third national COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK. Participants were >18 years, who were employed or self-employed and working in the UK. Descriptive and parametric (t-tests and linear regression) and nonparametric (chi square tests) inferential statistics were employed.ResultsRisk for major depression (T1: 20.0% to T2: 29.0%, p = .002), poor general health (T1: 4.7% to T2: 0%, p = .002) and poor life satisfaction (T1: 15.4% to T2: 25.4%, p = .002) worsened over time, moderate-to-severe anxiety remained stable (T1: 26.1% to T2: 30.2%, p = .15). Low psychological detachment from work was more prevalent in the first wave (T1: 21.4% and T2: 16.0%), with a moderate improvement observed from T1 to T2 (t (129) = -7.09, p < .001). No differences were observed with work status (employed/self-employed), except for self-employed workers being more likely to report poor general health at T1 (16.1%, p = .002). Better psychological wellbeing, lower anxiety and higher life satisfaction at T2 were observed in those who reported better psychological detachment from work at T1 (β = .21, p = .01; β = -.43, p < .001; β = .32, p = .003, respectively), and in those who improved in this recovery activity from T1 to T2 (β = .36, p < .001; β = -.27, p < .001; β = .27, p = .008, respectively), controlling for age, gender and ethnicity.ConclusionThe ability to psychologically detach from work during the first pandemic lockdown, and improvement in this recovery activity over time, predicted better mental wellbeing and quality of life in vocationally active adults after one year of a global crisis, irrespective of work status. Interventions to encourage workers to psychologically detach from work may help to support employee wellbeing at all times, not only in the extreme circumstances of pandemics and economic uncertainty.

Participants involved in the study.

On June 1, 2021, the number of trips planned by pedestrians and mobility services users in the city of New York was 45 percent of the 'usual activity' during the four weeks between January 6 and February 2, 2020. The change in mobility likely comes as a result of measures taken to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries were forced to place extensive restrictions on travel in order to contain the virus. When restrictions were lifted, mobility began to rise among urbanites, and so did the number of new cases worldwide per day. When new waves of infections hit, several regions went back into lockdown. More information regarding the pandemic can be found here. How the pandemic affects remote work
Since the first lockdown between early and mid-2020, many states have adopted various approaches to curb the spread of the virus. Governments have eased or tightened restrictions, and curfews and localized lockdowns have come and gone. As a result, remote work has become a reality for many employees since the outbreak of the virus, with almost two out of three employers stating that some share of their workforce will remain permanently remote post coronavirus. People commuting via public transport during the pandemic have generally represented, for the most part, essential workers. How the pandemic affects public transport
There is no doubt that people are more reluctant to risk their health by using public transport. Whoever can, works remotely or uses individual modes of travel. Survey respondents in the United States overwhelmingly named their own car as the preferred choice of personal mobility during the pandemic and thereafter. In Europe, the pandemic has resulted in a significant drop in revenue for mobility services for 2020, as demand for flights, buses, trains, and ridesharing has plummeted considerably. Mobility at transit stations in both regions slumped in March 2020.

95% Bias corrected and accelerated confidence intervals reported in parentheses. Confidence intervals and standard errors based on 1000 bootstrapped samples.

We conducted a mixed methods study to identify adaptations made to Family Planning/Reproductive Health (FP/RH) services during the COVID-19 pandemic and quantify the impact of COVID-19 on key FP/RH indicators. Data were collected through: 1) Analysis of trends in FP/RH data routinely collected service statistics by projects, from January 2020 (4 months prior to lockdown in Nigeria) through December 2020 and 2) Key informant interviews with project staff including: clinical health care providers, programmatic staff and outreach workers. Two projects supporting FP/RH services for women in humanitarian settings in Nigeria in the time of COVID-19 were part of this study: The IHANN II (Integrated Humanitarian Assistance to Northeast Nigeria, April 2019 – December 2020) project in Borno State and the UNHCR-SS-HNIR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees South-South Health and Nutrition Intervention, April 2019 – December 2020) project in Cross River State. The study team analyzed routine programmatic monitoring data from the two projects to describe monthly trends in the provision of FP/RH services during COVID-19 from January 2020 through December 2020. Monthly numbers of clients for each of these services were collected for each facility: ANC attendees, deliveries attended by skilled personnel, women receiving FP services, individuals reached with RH community outreach, children receiving oral polio vaccines (OPV) 1 and 3, and pregnant women who received HIV counselling and testing. Service utilization data was collated from project registers as a part of projects’ routine monitoring system. Research assistants conducted 40 semi-structured in-depth interviews to gather information on the effect of COVID-19 on FP/RH service provision, project modifications, staff recommendations and lessons learned. Twenty staff were purposively selected from each of the two projects and stratified to ensure representation of clinical/health care providers, project staff and outreach workers. Data from IDIs are not included in these data. This work is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), provided to FHI 360 through Cooperative Agreement 7200AA19CA00041. Partners on this work include Evidence for Sustainable Human Development Systems in Africa (EVIDAF).

95% Bias corrected and accelerated confidence intervals reported in parentheses. Confidence intervals and standard errors based on 1000 bootstrapped samples.

The number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the United States was forecast to continuously decrease between 2024 and 2029 by in total 6.7 thousand enterprises (-2.24 percent). After the fourteenth consecutive decreasing year, the number is estimated to reach 291.94 thousand enterprises and therefore a new minimum in 2029. According to the OECD an enterprise is defined as the smallest combination of legal units, which is an organisational unit producing services or goods, that benefits from a degree of autonomy with regards to the allocation of resources and decision making. Shown here are small and medium-sized enterprises, which are defined as companies with 1-249 employees.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in more than 150 countries and regions worldwide. All input data are sourced from international institutions, national statistical offices, and trade associations. All data has been are processed to generate comparable datasets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

Proportion of those ‘at risk’ of poor health (%, valid cases/ sub-group sample) and wellbeing at T1 (N = 337) and T2 (N = 178) and testing for differences by work status group by time period.

Overview of RKSK interventions and health workers [8, 9] involved in programme implementation.

Study participants & their roles and responsibilities (N = 31).

ObjectivesThe global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 heavily affected the arts and creative industries due to the instigation of lockdown measures in the United Kingdom and closure of venues. However, it also provided new opportunities for arts and cultural engagement through virtual activities and streamed performances. Yet it remains unclear (i) who was likely to engage with the arts at home during lockdown, (ii) how this engagement differed from patterns of arts engagement prior to COVID-19, and (iii) whether home-based arts engagement was related to people’s ability to cope with their emotions during lockdown. This study was therefore designed to address these questions.MethodsWe used data collected in late May from the United Kingdom COVID-19 Social Study run by University College London. Multivariate regressions were used for the analysis (N = 19,384). Identified factors included demographic factors, socio-economic position, psychosocial wellbeing and health conditions, adverse events/worries, and coping styles.ResultsFour types of home-based arts engagement were identified during the COVID-19 pandemic: digital arts and writing, musical activities, crafts, and reading for pleasure. Our results show that the strongest predictors of the engagement were age, education attainment, social support, and emotion-focused or supportive coping styles. In particular, younger adults (aged 18–29), non-keyworkers, people with greater social support, people who had lost work, those who were worried about catching the virus, and those with an emotion-focused, problem-focused or supportive coping style were more likely to have increased arts engagement during lockdown. Arts activities were used as approach and avoidance strategies to help cope with emotions, as well as to help improve self-development.ConclusionOverall, our study suggests that while some people who engaged in the arts during the COVID-19 pandemic were those who typically engage under normal circumstances, the pandemic has also created new incentives and opportunities for others to engage virtually. Additionally, this study highlights the value of the arts as coping tools during stressful situations.