Sandrine Metzger: Exploring the Heterogeneity in First-Time Mothers’ and Fathers’ Mental Health Trajectories
This study explores the inter-individual heterogeneity in mental health responses to parenthood and assesses how gender and socioeconomic characteristics relate to different trajectory patterns over this life course transition. I use Growth Mixture Modelling with large-scale Australian panel data for men and women having a first child (2001-2022; N=3,854) to identify latent subgroups following similar mental health trajectories following birth. Results show substantial variations in mental health patterns when becoming a parent, particularly among women and nontertiary educated individuals.
Christina Siegert, Nadia Steiber, Laura Zilian: The Education-Specific Impact of First Birth on Poverty Risk Within Couples: Evidence from Austrian Register Data
This paper examines how poverty dynamics around first birth vary by educational background within different-sex couples in Austria. Using longitudinal administrative data and an event study design, we focus on the role of educational attainment and educational assortative mating on gendered poverty risks from two years before the transition to parenthood until the first child turns six. The results highlight the economic vulnerability of partnered mothers across education levels.
Lili Vargha, Sarah Patterson: Quantifying the Gender Care Gap in 101 Countries
Using time use surveys around the globe, we aim to quantify a gender care gap indicator for 101 countries and 204 country-years spanning 1999 to 2022 for direct unpaid care (childcare, adult care), unpaid domestic work (housework, such as cooking, cleaning, household maintenance, etc.) the two combined (unpaid work) as well as the gender gap in paid work. The estimations combine data from the (1) United Nations’ (UN) Gender Hub, UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Indicators, (2) time use statistics from Eurostat and OECD, (3) micro time use data (e.g., the Harmonised European Time Use Surveys, Multinational Time Use Surveys and national time use surveys), (4) gender and age specific time use data from the Counting Women’s Work (CWW 2023) and AGENTA projects and (5) the UN’s population data (WPP 2024).
