Harried and Unhealthy? Parenthood, Time Pressure, and Mental Health

• Date: 01 April 2019
• Author: Francisco Perales,Janeen Baxter,Leah Ruppanner
• Published date: 01 April 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12531

L R University of Melbourne

F P  J B The University of Queensland∗

Harried and Unhealthy? Parenthood, Time Pressure,

and Mental Health

Objective: This study investigates the effects of

rst and second births on time pressureand men-

tal health and how these vary with time since

birth and parental responsibilities. It also exam-

ines whether time pressure mediates the rela-

tionship between parenthood and mental health.

Background: Childbirth is a major life course

transition that adds a new role to parents’ role

set and contributes to role strain, of which

time pressure is one manifestation. Longitudinal

analyses can help determine whether the impact

of children on parental time pressure endures or

eases over time and whether any changes affect

parents’ mental health.

Method: This study uses 16 years of panel

data from the Household, Income and Labour

Dynamics in Australia Survey (n=20,009

individuals). The data are modeled using xed

effects panel regression models.

Results: First and second births increase time

pressure to a similar extent. Their estimated

ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over

the Life Course & Department of Social and Political

Sciences, University of Melbourne, Grattan Street,

Parkville VIC, 3003, VIC, Australia

(leah.ruppanner@unimelb.edu.au).

∗ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over

the Life Course, Institute for Social Science Research, The

University of Queensland, Long Pocket Campus, 80 Meiers

Road, 4068, QLD, Australia.

Key Words: Australia, life course, mental health, panel data,

parenthood, time pressure.

effects are larger for women than men and per-

sist over time, but there is limited evidence of

moderation by parental responsibilities. Mater-

nal mental health improves after a rst child,

whereas second children are associated with

declines in paternal mental health. These effects

are long lasting.Mediation analyses suggest that

in the absence of time pressure maternal mental

health would improve signicantly.

Conclusion: Children have a stronger effect on

mothers’ than fathers’ experiences of time pres-

sure. These differences are not moderated by

changes in parentalresponsibilities or work time

following births. The increased time pressure

associated with second births explains mothers’

worse mental health.

Implications Parenthood is an important fac-

tor underpinning gendered experiences of time

pressure.Reducing time pressure among parents

may improve parental mental health, particu-

larly among mothers.

The birth of a child is a major life course

transition that requires a reshufing of roles,

routines, and schedules (Umberson, Pudrovska,

& Reczek, 2010). Role strain, or “the felt dif-

culty in fullling role obligations” (Goode,

1960, p. 483), contributes to stress and is a

central mechanism in the stress process model

(Pearlin, 1989; Pearlin, Lieberman, Menaghan,

& Mullan, 1981). The addition of parent into

one’s role set brings demands that lead to role

strain (Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2003; Umberson

et al., 2010). Yet these demands are not equally

308 Journal of Marriage and Family 81 (April 2019): 308–326

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12531

Parenthood, Time Pressure, and Mental Health 309

distributed, with mothers often assuming the

primary family carer role and absorbing greater

domestic work than fathers (Baxter, Hewitt, &

Haynes, 2008; Bianchi, 2000; Raley, Bianchi,

& Wang, 2012). Mothers’ greater domestic load

often comes at the expense of reductions in

paid work time, reinforcing traditional gender

divisions of labor (Bianchi, Milkie, Sayer, &

Robinson, 2000; Bianchi & Raley, 2005; Sayer,

2005). The role of father, by contrast, draws

on breadwinning norms, with fathers often

increasing paid work time following childbirth

(Hochschild, 1997; Sayer, 2005).

Even as children age, mothers remain dis-

proportionately responsible for the domestic

load relative to fathers (Lachance-Grzela &

Bouchard, 2010; Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2003).

Although children’s care needs change over

time, mothers remain responsible for the

day-to-day educational, physical, and emo-

tional needs of their children—as reected

by the amount of time they spend with their

children (Craig, 2006). Fathers increase their

child-care contributions as children age, but

their investments rarely match those of mothers

(Hook & Wolfe, 2012; Maume, 2011). The

time demands of parenting are not without

consequence, exacerbating mothers’ reports of

feeling rushed relative to childless women and

men (Mattingly & Sayer, 2006; Milkie, Raley,

& Bianchi, 2009) and negatively affecting

employed mothers’ mental health (Roxburgh,

2004). Because the impact of parenthood on

time is not gender neutral, the mental health

costs of parenthood are more severe for mothers

than fathers (Nomaguchi, Milkie, & Bianchi,

2005).

Existing studies document gender differences

in parents’ time pressure (i.e., insufcient time to

complete tasks), often measured as self-reports

on a single item of feeling rushed or pressed for

time (Craig & Brown, 2017; Craig & Mullan,

2010; Milkie et al., 2009) or more detailed ques-

tion batteries (Roxburgh, 2002, 2006). Yet no

study has considered how the gendered effects of

parenthood on time pressure and mental health

increase or diminish over time after rst and sec-

ond births or the possibility of returns to the

baseline (i.e., nonlinear effects) as children grow

older. Nor has research paid sufcient attention

to whether parents’ greater time pressure fol-

lowing birth impacts their mental health during

extended periods of time. Furthermore, existing

research is limited in its methodological scope,

applying ordinary least squares (OLS) models

on cross-sectional data or restricting longitudi-

nal analyses to random effects models that do

not fully account for person-specic unobserved

effects (Lewis & Cooper, 1988; Mattingly &

Sayer, 2006).

To address these theoretical and methodolog-

ical gaps, we analyze 16 years of annual panel

data from the Household, Income and Labour

Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey and

deploy xed effects panel regression models.

We theorize the long-term consequences of par-

enthood on time pressure and mental health by

drawing on different principles of role strain

theory (Goode, 1960) and the stress process

model (Pearlin, 1989). As more families jug-

gle work and family demands, understanding the

relationships between health, time pressure, and

parenthood—and how these differ by gender—is

of increasing scientic and policy importance.

R S: G, P, 

R O

Role strain theory posits that individuals shoul-

der multiple roles with different demands that

are embedded within social institutions, many

of which are assigned ascriptively (e.g., accord-

ing to gender) and reinforced through institu-

tional norms (e.g., norms relating to family,

gender, and work; Goode, 1960). Intense role

demands foster role overload (i.e., the extent to

which such demands exceed a person’sstamina),

whereas competing role demands foster inter-

role conict (i.e., incompatibility in the demands

of multiple roles; Goode, 1960). In turn, as

highlighted in the stress process model, both

of these situations contribute to stress (Pearlin,

1989). First births are an important life event that

results in a new role as parent, and the demands

associated with this role are both intense and

likely to conict with the demands of other

roles, for example, that of employee or spouse

(Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2003). As a result, the

adoption of the parental role can be seen as a

factor that could lead to chronic stress (Pearlin,

1983, 1989). So demanding is the parental role

that new mothers often reduce or withdraw from

employment to meet children’s needs, and those

who remain in the labor market face competing

work and family demands (Craig, 2007; Stone,

2007).

We assess how rst and second births con-

tribute to role overload by investigating their