Poster #47 - Sharing is caring: Redistributing unpaid domestic and care work improves mental well-being for fathers and mothers

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

Across contexts, women perform a disproportionate share of unpaid domestic and care work (UDCW) and experience depression at roughly twice the rate of men. While a growing literature documents correlations between unpaid work burdens and mental health, causal evidence remains limited due to challenges in disentangling labor allocation from confounding socioeconomic factors. This paper provides experimental evidence on whether shifting intra-household labor dynamics can improve psychological well-being.

We study a randomized controlled trial in ultra-poor rural Ethiopia that evaluates a light-touch, phone-based behavior change intervention targeting men. Fathers of young children participated in seven biweekly, personalized conversations designed to encourage reflection on gender norms, household roles, and small, achievable changes in domestic engagement. The intervention is low-cost, scalable, and does not directly alter economic resources or impose changes in time allocation.

The intervention led to a 20 percent reduction in depression scores (PHQ-9) for both mothers and fathers, indicating substantial improvements in mental well-being across households. Treated men increased their participation in domestic work by approximately 25 minutes per day—a 50 percent increase relative to baseline—but only 5 percent of the total household load. Women’s absolute time spent on domestic work did not decline; however, their share of total household labor fell by 10 percentage points as men and, to some extent, children increased their contributions. Still, given their 70% baseline share, substantial loads persist. These findings suggest that mental health improvements need not arise from reducing women’s total work burden. Instead, changes in the relative distribution of labor and perceived support within households appear to play a central role. By increasing men’s engagement and rebalancing contributions at the margin, the intervention improves both partners’ psychological well-being without generating trade-offs between them.

This paper contributes to the literature by providing causal evidence linking intra-household labor allocation to mental health and by highlighting the importance of relative burden, perceptions of fairness, and relational dynamics. From a policy perspective, the results demonstrate that norm-sensitive, behaviorally informed interventions targeting men can generate meaningful welfare gains in low-resource settings. These findings have implications for the design of gender, labor, and mental health policies, particularly in contexts where reducing total work burdens is difficult but redistributing them may be feasible.

Author

• Shivani Gupta, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author