In a fast-paced world where work schedules extend beyond the traditional 9-5 framework, the importance of quality sleep cannot be overstated. But sleep, a cornerstone of our overall health and well-being, is increasingly compromised by atypical work patterns with knock-on consequences for people’s health, productivity and the economy. As part of her PhD, Gill Weston…
Tag: Mental health
Do family-friendly policies lead to long-term wellbeing?
France has long been known as a country where working parents are supported, with good family benefits and leave entitlements. But how good is the mental health of women who had full-time careers while bringing up a family in France? In this blog, Constance Beaufils of the National Institute for Demographic Studies in Paris describes…
Unsocial working hours: are these compatible for parents and families?
A recently-launched Parliamentary inquiry is asking if policy needs to be changed to deal with the personal impact of night time or shift work. So how do unsocial working hours affect parents? Afshin Zilanawala from the University of Southampton and Anne McMunn from the ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies at University College London discuss…
Were women’s domestic burdens eased by Covid-19 lockdowns? And will the pandemic have a lasting effect on household work-sharing?
In October 2020, WorkLife featured research from Baowen Xue and Anne McMunn showing how badly the pandemic was affecting the mental health of working parents, especially single mothers. The researchers expressed concerns over the reversal of pre-pandemic trends towards a more gender equal society and supported calls from the Women’s Budget Group for a care-led…
Being accommodating in the workplace: could it help close the disability employment gap?
In 2020, 8.4 million people of working age (16-64) reported that they were disabled which is 20% of the working age population. 52 percent of disabled people aged 16-64 were in work compared with 81 percent of non-disabled people. It’s a gap the Department for Work and Pensions wants to tackle, but good research for evidence-based…
Youth unemployment and later mental ill-health: who is at risk?
The pandemic has brought links between unemployment and mental health to the fore. With joblessness having risen across the globe, new research looking at the longer-term effects is particularly timely. Liam Wright and colleagues from UCL’s Department of Epidemiology and Public health describe new research which could motivate efforts to target vulnerable groups and use…
Could having a psychologically demanding job actually be good for you?
Recent research has highlighted that those in psychologically demanding jobs which don’t offer possibility of control are more likely to become ill or to leave the labour market early. But a new study carried out in Sweden suggests the picture may be more complex than previously thought – for some workers, having a demanding job…
Lockdown – just how stressful has it been?
2020 is a year many will be happy to see the back of. It has been a stressful time for sure with periods of lockdown creating major challenges for our day to day work and family lives. But have the stresses and strains associated with lockdown affected the mental health of the UK population as…
Leaving school: how do work and family transitions affect women’s wealth and wellbeing later on?
How have the early adult lives of a generation of young women who grew up after the war impacted on their lives now? Baowen Xue and Anne McMunn from the ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies at UCL discuss two new papers which look at life satisfaction, mental health and economic wealth among older women….
Working and caring: the mental health toll of combining paid work and childcare during lockdown
Baowen Xue and Anne McMunn from the ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies at University College London discuss new research showing that women spent considerably more time than men undertaking housework and childcare during lockdown and the knock on for working parents’ mental health, particularly that of lone mothers. They explain how the analysis adds…