Data gather during observations found that having children in the household can mitigate the negative impact of inactivity on life satisfaction. While the overall impact of inactivity is still negative, men and women with children seemed to have experienced less severe reductions in life satisfaction as a result of being out of the labour force than those without children. 

A potential explanation may be that adults with children who have left the labour market due to the pandemic have been able to spend more time with their children at home.

Additional Psychological Impact on Parenthood and Unemployment

Unemployment appears to decrease men’s happiness more than women, though the gap varies significantly across countries. This finding, that men tend to be more severely affected by unemployment than women, is largely consistent with prior evidence and appears not to have been dramatically altered by the onset of COVID-19.

Indiana University

Women have benn particularly vulnerable to the labour market consequences of the pandemic. 
Globally, four in ten employed women work in sectors that were hard-hit COVID-19, including travel, retail, food, accommodation, and services. 

In low-and middle-income countries, women are also much more likely to be employed in domestic work, a sector in which three out of four workers were at risk of losing their job in June 2020. 

At the same time, women are also overrepresented in certain essential sectors, including health and social work, exposing them to greater physical and mental health risks. 

In many high-income countries, more than 80 percent of the health workforce is made up of women. 

Childcare responsibilities arising as a result of school closures can also play a role in the reduction of working mothers’ labour supply.

Single parents are particularly at risk, of whom almost four out of five around the world are women.

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