Have girls been left behind during the COVID-19 pandemic? Gender differences in pandemic effects on children's mental wellbeing

Silvia Mendolia; Agne Suziedelyte; Anna Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2022.110458

Have girls been left behind during the COVID-19 pandemic? Gender differences in pandemic effects on children's mental wellbeing

Econ Lett. 2022 May:214:110458. doi: 10.1016/j.econlet.2022.110458. Epub 2022 Mar 24.

Authors

Silvia Mendolia^{1

2

3

4}, Agne Suziedelyte⁵, Anna Zhu^{6

2

3

7}

Affiliations

¹ University of Wollongong, Australia.
² Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Germany.
³ ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, Australia.
⁴ University of Turin - Department of Economics, Social Studies and Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Turin - Italy.
⁵ City, University of London, United Kingdom.
⁶ Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Australia.
⁷ ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, Australia.

Abstract

Using data from the UK, we show that girls have been affected more than boys by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of their mental wellbeing. These gender differences are more pronounced in lower-income families. Our results are consistent with previous findings of larger pandemic effects on mental health of women.

Keywords: COVID-19; Children; Mental health; Pandemic.