Linked lives and work-family dynamics: gendered workload, family support, and mental well-being among urban Chinese dual-earner households

In China, debates on achieving work-family balance have intensified with the rise of the dual-earner model. Balancing paid and unpaid work is stressful for dual-earner couples resulting in poor mental well-being outcomes for both partners. While prior mental well-being research mainly focused on individual associations, our study investigates associations of paid and unpaid workloads on spousal mental well-being within married dyads. Moreover, given that family support is an important resource in accordance with Chinese cultural and social norms, we investigate the mitigating role of family support within this dyadic relationship. Using coupled data from the Chinese Family Panel Study (CFPS) Wave 5, we employed Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) to explore crossover mechanisms of multiple workloads (total, paid, and unpaid) and spousal mental well-being. Mental well-being was evaluated by utilizing a scale for depressive symptoms and for subjective well-being. We found that both genders' higher levels of depression were border-significantly related to their own total workload (i.e. the sum of paid and unpaid labour), yet spousal associations were unobserved. For women, paid workload is negatively associated with subjective well-being while controlling for unpaid workload. The moderation models revealed, for men, that family support received from their wives' family attenuates the positive association between workloads and depression. Our study advances our knowledge of the gender dynamics influencing work-family balance and strengthens the rationale for the adoption of family-friendly workplace regulations in China.