Parents’ mental health: analysing the role of time use and becoming a parent using Australian data
Creators: name: ILYUSHINA, Nataliya
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 380108
subject: Health economics
classificationCode: 420313
subject: Mental health services

description: In this thesis I examine the role of parenthood on mental health. Mental health in general, and parents' mental health in particular, is a growing concern for the Australian health system and society. The prevalence of mental health disorders among individuals of childbearing age is very high: about 25% for the 25-34 year old group and 23% for the 35-44 year old group.

I conduct an empirical analysis of mental health of Australian parents using the large data set - Household, Income and Labour Dynamics (HILDA) Survey. In particular, I look at the transition to parenthood, parents time use and gender differences in the associations between time use and mental health.  To measure mental health, I use the MHI-5 indicator throughout. This variable is used as it directly measures mental health and it is found in all waves of HILDA. This variable addressed the problem that most previous research used measures of wellbeing other than mental health or focused on postnatal depression. 

Using this dataset I investigate three connected research questions. I begin by looking at the impact on mental health of becoming a parent for the first-time. I examine how parents versus childless couples spend their time. Finally, I look at how time use differs for mothers and fathers in order to examine the gendered aspects of the impact of children on how mothers and fathers allocate their time and what this implies for mental health. 
Research Question One: "Does the mental health of partnered new parents differ from that of individuals in couples who do not have children?" To answer this question two samples are selected, one of cohabiting parents observed in the first 12 months after having their first child; the second of individuals in a couple who have never had children. A treatment effects estimation method with matching techniques is used to estimate the mental health impact of becoming a parent. 

Research Question Two: "Is there an association between time spent doing different activities and mental health? Further, is this association different for parents versus non-parents?" To address this, two samples of partnered individuals are drawn from HILDA. The two samples varied in only one characteristic, the presence of own children under the age of 15 living within the household. To account for variation in the samples a random effects estimation method is used. The explanatory variables of interest are time in paid employment, commuting to paid employment, housework, household errands, outdoor tasks, looking after own children, looking after other people's children and volunteering.

Research Question Three: "What are the differences in the associations between time use and mental health between mothers and fathers?" Again a sample of coupled parents with resident children under the age of 15 is used in the analysis. Two estimation techniques are employed, random effects and seemingly unrelated regressions. The latter is estimated to account for possible correlation of unobservable determinants of the mental health.
The finding from research question one shows that mothers have statistically significantly better mental health in the first 12 months following the birth of their first child, when compared to statistically similar childless females. A similar increase is not found for fathers.

To reconcile this finding with the fact that averages for mental health of all parents in HILDA are lower than that of first-time parents and reflecting on the importance of the stage of parenthood, the next two chapters explore the way parents of young children use their time. The central hypothesis is that the pathway by which children impact on mental health is due to the life-style changes associated with having children and that this is clearly reflected in how parents spend their time relative to non-parents and how tasks are divided between parents within the household.

Research question two investigates the differences in associations between time use and mental health between parents and non-parents. It is found to be associated with mental health in both samples of parents and non-parents, however, parents¿ mental health is more responsive to the time spent doing activities than that of non-parents. For example, for mothers of children under 15 years old, time spent in housework is initially associated with improved mental health, but the effect reduces for 20 hours per week or more. No such association is found for childless females. Parents face tighter time constraints and that may be a reason why they show a statistically significant pattern of association between mental health and time use.

The contribution of research question three is that there are differences in the associations between mental health and uses of time between mothers and fathers. This empirical investigation found that mothers mental health is positively related to time in paid employment, as is fathers. However, the maximum benefit for mental health of mothers is at part-time hours, while for fathers it is for full-time. Fathers receive the maximum benefit to their mental health at about half the number of hours spent engaged in childcare as mothers. The combination of a father working full-time and mother working part-time and spending significantly more time looking after children is optimal for the mental health of both parents.

The results of the three empirical studies contained within this thesis reveal that there are differences in mental health between mothers and fathers of both new born children and children under 15 years old, and parents of young children and non-parents. In addition, it showed that becoming a parent for the first time is positively associated with mother's mental health. Parenthood in the longer term, as children age, is associated with counteracting effects on mental health coming from lifestyle changes that impact on the amount of time spent doing different activities. Time use is also found to be associated with mental health and parents are affected by more activities in relative to non-parents. This supports the idea that one pathway linking parenthood and mental health may be through the stress that is caused by being time poor as a parent.