TY - JOUR A1 - Li, Jianghong A1 - Bünning, Mareike A1 - Kaiser, Till A1 - Hipp, Lena T1 - Who suffered most? BT - parental stress and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany JF - Journal of family research N2 - Objective: This study examines gender and socioeconomic inequalities in parental psychological wellbeing (parenting stress and psychological distress) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Background: The dramatic shift of childcare and schooling responsibility from formal institutions to private households during the pandemic has put families under enormous stress and raised concerns about caregivers' health and wellbeing. Despite the overwhelming media attention to families’ wellbeing, to date limited research has examined parenting stress and parental psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in Germany. Method: We analyzed four waves of panel data (N= 1,771) from an opt-in online survey, which was conducted between March 2020 and April 2021. Multivariable OLS regressions were used to estimate variations in the pandemic's effects on parenting stress and psychological distress by various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Results: Overall, levels of parenting stress and psychological distress increased during the pandemic. During the first and third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, mothers, parents with children younger than 11 years, parents with two or more children, parents working from home as well as parents with financial insecurity experienced higher parenting stress than other sociodemographic groups. Moreover, women, respondents with lower incomes, single parents, and parents with younger children experienced higher levels of psychological distress than other groups. Conclusion: Gender and socioeconomic inequalities in parents' psychological wellbeing increased among the study participants during the pandemic. KW - COVID-19 KW - parenting stress KW - gender inequality KW - mental health KW - psychological distress KW - Germany KW - children Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.20377/jfr-704 SN - 2699-2337 VL - 34 IS - 1 SP - 281 EP - 309 PB - University of Bamberg Press CY - Bamberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bünning, Mareike A1 - Hipp, Lena T1 - How can we become more equal? BT - public policies and parents’ work–family preferences in Germany JF - Journal of European social policy N2 - This study examines how public policies affect parents' preferences for a more egalitarian division of paid and unpaid work. Based on the assumption that individuals develop their preferences within a specific policy context, we examine how changes in three policies affect mothers' and fathers' work-family preferences: the availability of high-quality, affordable childcare; the right to return to a full-time job after having reduced hours to part-time and an increase in the number of 'partner months' in parental leave schemes. Analysing a unique probability sample of parents with young children in Germany from 2015 (N = 1756), we find that fathers would want to work slightly fewer hours if they had the right to return to a full-time position after working part-time, and mothers would want to work slightly more hours if childcare opportunities were improved. Full-time working parents, moreover, are found to prefer fewer hours independent of the policy setting, while non-employed parents would like to work at least some hours. Last but not least, our analyses show that increasing the number of partner months in the parental leave scheme considerably increases fathers' preferences for longer and mothers' preferences for shorter leave. Increasing the number of partner months in parental schemes hence has the greatest potential to increase gender equality. KW - work-family policies KW - parental leave KW - childcare KW - working time KW - regulations KW - parenthood KW - working hours KW - gender equality KW - preferences KW - capabilities framework Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/09589287211035701 SN - 0958-9287 SN - 1461-7269 VL - 32 IS - 2 SP - 182 EP - 196 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schlomann, Anna A1 - Bünning, Mareike A1 - Hipp, Lena A1 - Wahl, Hans-Werner T1 - Aging during COVID-19 in Germany BT - a longitudinal analysis of psychosocial adaptation JF - European journal of ageing : social, behavioural and health perspectives N2 - Existing theories of aging suggest that there may be similarities and differences in how COVID-19 impacts older people’s psychosocial adaptation compared to younger age groups, particularly middle-aged individuals. To assess the degree to which these impacts vary, we analyzed data from 3098 participants between the ages of 40 and 79 from an online survey in Germany. Data were collected at three measurement occasions between the start of the nationwide lockdown in mid-March 2020 and the end of the lockdown in early August 2020. The survey focused on everyday experiences during the COVID-19 crisis and collected various satisfaction ratings (e.g., general life satisfaction, satisfaction with family life, satisfaction with social contacts). At baseline, participants also provided retrospective ratings of satisfaction for the period before the COVID-19 crisis. In our analyses, we compared satisfaction ratings of middle-aged (40–64 years) and older individuals (65–79 years) and found that both middle-aged and older participants experienced the greatest decreases in satisfaction with social contacts, with more pronounced decreases seen in middle-aged participants. A similar pattern was observed for general life satisfaction, but the overall decreases were less pronounced in both groups compared to the decreases in satisfaction with social contacts. We also observed a partial recovery effect in all measures at the last measurement occasion, and this effect was more pronounced in older adults. Findings were also confirmed using age as a continuous variable and checking for linear and nonlinear effects of outcomes across the age range. Although ageism arose during the pandemic in the sense that older adults were labeled as a “risk group,” particularly at the start of the outbreak, we found consistently with other studies that middle-aged adults’ satisfaction decreased to a greater extent than that of older adults. KW - Coronavirus pandemic KW - older adults KW - satisfaction with life KW - satisfaction with social relations KW - age stereotypes KW - longitudinal survey study Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10433-021-00655-1 SN - 1613-9372 SN - 1613-9380 VL - 19 IS - 4 SP - 1077 EP - 1086 PB - Springer CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bünning, Mareike A1 - Hipp, Lena T1 - Geschlechterungleichheiten im Arbeitsleben und subjektiven Wohlbefinden von Erwerbstätigen während der COVID-19-Pandemie T1 - Gender Inequalities in Employment and Subjective-Wellbeing among the Employed during the COVID-19 Pandemic JF - Sozialer Fortschritt N2 - Wie hat sich die COVID-19 Pandemie auf geschlechtsspezifische Ungleichheiten im Arbeitsleben und dem subjektiven Wohlbefinden Erwerbstätiger ausgewirkt? Zur Beantwortung dieser Frage analysiert dieser Beitrag drei Wellen einer nicht zufallsbasierten Onlinestichprobe für den Zeitraum Mitte März bis Anfang August 2020 und umfassen damit den Zeitraum des ersten Lockdowns. Die Ergebnisse unserer multivariaten Analysen zeigen: Frauen, Eltern und insbesondere Mütter waren überdurchschnittlich von Arbeitszeitreduzierungen betroffen. Bei der Wahrscheinlichkeit im Homeoffice zu arbeiten gab es nur geringfügige Unterschiede nach Geschlecht und Familiensituation. Die Zufriedenheit mit der Arbeit, dem Familienleben und dem Leben insgesamt ging bei Frauen, Eltern und insbesondere Müttern überproportional stark zurück. Die beobachteten Unterschiede verringern sich gegen Ende des Lockdowns wieder, jedoch unterschiedlich stark für die einzelnen Ergebnisdimensionen. N2 - How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected gender inequalities in employment and the subjective well-being of the employed? To answer this question, we analyze three waves of a non-randomized online-survey from mid-March to the beginning of August 2020. The results of our multivariate analyses show: Women, parents, and especially mothers were disproportionately affected by working-time reductions. The likelihood of working from home differed only marginally by gender and family situation. Declines in satisfaction with work, family life and life in general were stronger among women, parents, and especially mothers. The observed differences decreased towards the end of the lockdown-phase, though to different extends for different outcomes. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3790/sfo.70.5-6.293 SN - 0038-609X SN - 1865-5386 VL - 70 IS - 5-6 SP - 293 EP - 315 PB - Duncker & Humblot CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hipp, Lena A1 - Bünning, Mareike T1 - Parenthood as a driver of increased genderinequality during COVID-19? BT - exploratory evidence from Germany JF - European societies N2 - Drawing on three waves of survey data from a non-probability sample from Germany, this paper examines two opposing expectations about the pandemic's impacts on gender equality: The optimistic view suggests that gender equality has increased, as essential workers in Germany have been predominantly female and as fathers have had more time for childcare. The pessimistic view posits that lockdowns have also negatively affected women's jobs and that mothers had to shoulder the additional care responsibilities. Overall, our exploratory analyses provide more evidence supporting the latter view. Parents were more likely than non-parents to work fewer hours during the pandemic than before, and mothers were more likely than fathers to work fewer hours once lockdowns were lifted. Moreover, even though parents tended to divide childcare more evenly, at least temporarily, mothers still shouldered more childcare work than fathers. The division of housework remained largely unchanged. It is therefore unsurprising that women, in particular mothers, reported lower satisfaction during the observation period. Essential workers experienced fewer changes in their working lives than respondents in other occupations. KW - COVID-19 KW - gender KW - family KW - employment KW - division of labour KW - satisfaction Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1833229 SN - 1461-6696 SN - 1469-8307 VL - 23 SP - S658 EP - S673 PB - Taylor & Francis Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hipp, Lena A1 - Bünning, Mareike A1 - Munnes, Stefan A1 - Sauermann, Armin T1 - Problems and pitfalls of retrospective survey questions in COVID-19 studies JF - Survey research methods N2 - This paper examines and discusses the biases and pitfalls of retrospective survey questions that are currently being used in many medical, epidemiological, and sociological studies on the COVID-19 pandemic. By analyzing the consistency of answers to retrospective questions provided by respondents who participated in the first two waves of a survey on the social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, we illustrate the insights generated by a large body of survey research on the use of retrospective questions and recall accuracy. KW - COVID-19 KW - retrospective questions KW - recall accuracy Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2020.v14i2.7741 SN - 1864-3361 VL - 14 IS - 2 SP - 109 EP - 113 PB - European Survey Research Association CY - Konstanz ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hipp, Lena A1 - Bünning, Mareike A1 - Munnes, Stefan A1 - Sauermann, Armin T1 - Commentary zu: Schaurer, Ines; Weiß, Bernd: Investigating selection bias of online surveys on coronavirus-related behavioral outcomes JF - Survey research methods Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2020.v14i2.7751 SN - 1864-3361 VL - 14 IS - 2 SP - 107 EP - 108 PB - European Survey Research Association CY - Duisburg ER -