Project info
Work package
- Care
Sustainability threat
- Spillovers
Challenge
- Facilitating work life balance
Study info
Description of Study
Study investigating the extent to which the first COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 changed the unpaid task division at home and how that consequently affected relationship satisfaction.
Study 1: Survey study during the COVID-19 lockdown in the Spring of 2020 where individuals who were involved in a romantic relationship and living together for at least six months were invited to complete an online questionnaire of 20 minutes about their experiences during the lockdown.
Study 2: LISS Panel dyadic and longitudinal data study during the same lockdown.
Study research question
In the current study we investigate, among women (study 1) and couples (study 2) in heterosexual relationships with children living at home, how the external shock of the COVID-19 lockdown is associated with changes in the main domestic task divisions (i.e., household tasks and childcare) and what the consequences are for relationship satisfaction. In study 2 we also examined differences between male and female partners.
Collection provenance
- Collected during project
- External data
Collection methods
- Questionaire
Personal data
No
External Source
Source description
File formats
- .sav (SPSS file)
Data types
- Structured
Languages
- Dutch
Coverage start
Coverage end
27/05/2020
08/06/2020
Spatial coverage
Netherlands
Collection period start
27/05/2020
Collection period end
08/06/2020
Variables
Unit
Unit description
Sample size
Sampling method
Individuals
Working women within a romantic relationship, living together (with children)
395
Convenience sampling
Families
Heterosexual couples with at least one child at home
165
LISS Panel
Hypothesis
Theory
We hypothesize that women in nontraditional relationships (i.e., women who deviate from gender roles by earning and working more than their partner), will report to be pushed back into domestic roles during COVID-19, while women in more traditional relationships (i.e., women who show gender-congruent behavior by earning and working less than their partner) will experience less of a shift in their division of household tasks (H1).
Social Role theory & Self-categorization theory
In addition, we hypothesize that shifts in the direction of more traditional domestic task divisions during the COVID-19 lockdown will predict lower relationship satisfaction among women in nontraditional relationships compared to women in traditional relationships (H2).
Social Role theory & Self-categorization theory
Variable type
Variable name
Variable description
Dependent variable
Relationship satisfaction
Participants also reported how happy they were in their relationship since the COVID-19 crisis began (1 = very unhappy, 7 = our relationship is perfect; the first item of the Couples Satisfaction Index (CSI-4; Funk & Rogge, 2007)
Independent variable
Relative task division at home (household tasks, childcare, homeschooling)
One item for household-related tasks (cooking/cleaning/laundry), three childcare-related tasks (teaching the kids and/or helping them do homework; playing with kids/keeping them occupied; feeding/washing/taking them to bed) and paid work. Respondents’ perception of the unpaid and paid work divisions before COVID-19 and during the lockdown was measured on a 7-point likert scale (1 = I spent the most time on this task, 4 = we both spent the same amount of time on this task, 7 = my partner spent the most time on this task)
Independent variable
Relative income division
women’s relative contribution to household income before COVID-19 was assessed with the question “Can you estimate the percentage of your shared income that you and your partner earned in the period before COVID-19?” Answering options ranged from 1 to 11 (1=“I earned 100%, my partner 0%,” 6=“I earned 50%, my partner 50%”, 11=“I earned 0%, my partner 100%”)
Independent variable
Paid work hours
Paid work hours of both partners
Discipline-specific operationalizations
Conflict of interest
None
Data packages
TBA
Data package DOI
TBA
Description
TBA
Accessibility
Open Access
Repository
TBA
User license
TBA
Retention period
10
Publications
Documents
Filename
Description
Date
Ethics
Ethical assessment
Yes
Ethical committee
the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences of Utrecht University, filed under number 20-272.