The Differential Impact of Caregiving and Employment Engagement on Mental Health before and after COVID-19 between Men and Women.

Background and Purpose:

Midlife adults often simultaneously take multiple roles, including participation in the workforce and caregiving for parents, spouses, children, or grandchildren. The demands associated with these roles have frequently been linked to the notion of a “midlife crisis.” With the onset of COVID-19, caregiving dynamics shifted as nursing homes, schools, and childcare services closed, increasing the responsibilities of family caregivers. Prior studies have found gender disparities in caregiving intensity and burden during the pandemic. However, little research has examined how multiple social roles interact with caregiving responsibilities and gender, and how these dynamics have changed following COVID-19. Such insights are important for mitigating the dual burdens faced by midlife adults for preventing mental health challenges. Accordingly, this study aims to examine the relationship between social role engagement and mental health and further to investigate whether this relationship varies by gender pre- and post- COVID-19.

Methods:

The sample included 4,458 midlife adults aged 40–60 (1,828 men and 2,630 women) from the 2018 and 2022 Health and Retirement Study. Multiple regression analyses were conducted separately for the pre- and post-COVID waves to examine the association between depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale–7) and social role engagement (neither-role, work-only, care-only, and both-roles), controlling for age, marital status, race/ethnicity, household income, healthcare access, self-rated physical health, and gender. Interaction effects between social role engagement and gender were assessed. .

Results:

Across both pre- and post-COVID periods, social role engagement was significantly associated with depressive symptoms, although its effect sizes varied over time. Compared to the neither-role group, the work-only and both-roles groups reported lower depression (pre-COVID: b = −0.79, −0.52; post-COVID: b = −0.48, −0.50, respectively). Women reported higher depression than men (pre-COVID: b = 0.20; post-COVID: b = 0.38). There were no significant interaction effects between gender and social role engagement in either period. However, differed across time. In pre-COVID, both the work-only (b = −0.96) and both-roles groups (b = −0.75) were associated with lower depression, with no significant gender effect. In post-COVID, only the work-only group remained significantly associated with lower depression (b = −0.44), while gender became significant (b = 0.47). Interaction plots indicated that, in pre-COVID, the no-activity group among men and the care-only group among women showed the highest depression, whereas in post-COVID, the care-only group among men and the neither-role group among women showed the highest depression. However, these patterns should be interpreted with caution given the non-significant interaction terms.

Conclusion and Implications:

This study found that the effect of social roles on depression decreased, while the effect of gender increased following COVID-19. Additionally, gender differences in the relationship between specific social roles and depression suggest shifts in perceptions of caregiving responsibilities after the pandemic. Findings highlight the need for gender-tailored interventions for family caregivers that account for their multiple roles in both the workforce and the household to help prevent mental health problems and promote healthier family dynamics.