Men's stress goes down in lockdown, but women's goes up

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-06-02 09:01

International

Men's stress levels go down during lockdown, but women's go up, according to research from Israel. While you might think the men being at home is what makes women stressed, the authors suggest the different stress levels are likely the result of social differences, including childcare and the fact that more women lost their jobs during lockdown. The study also found that young people had a bigger drop in mood than older people, and sleep-ins benefited young night owls as they ended up getting more sleep. The authors say based on the observed effects, special attention should be given to younger people, who are usually not in the focus of social support, and to women.

News release

From: The Royal Society

Differential effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on well-being: interaction between age, gender and chronotype

We analyzed highly detailed data on 169 participants for 2-6 months, before and during the second COVID-19 lockdown in Israel. We extracted 12 well-being indicators from smartwatches and from self-reported questionnaires, filled on a daily basis, to study the interplay between age, gender, and chronotype on well-being before and after lockdowns. Our findings underscore that while lockdowns severely impacted our well-being and physiology in general, greater damage has been identified in certain subpopulations. Based on the observed effects, special attention should be given to younger people, who are usually not in the focus of social support, and to women.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: Journal of the Royal Society Interface

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Tel-Aviv University, Israel

Funder: This researchwas supported by the ISRAEL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (grant no. 3409/19), within the Israel Precision Medicine Partnership program

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