Home Advantage or Hidden Strain? The Mental Health Effects of Working from Home across Gender, Childcare Status, and Occupational Class before and since the Pandemic

Although working from home (WFH) is promoted as a policy supporting work-life balance, whether it benefits mental health remains unclear. Few studies have examined how these effects vary across social groups or addressed selection issues complicating causal inference. We use two-way fixed-effects models to analyze changes in mental health scores, measured with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, among 39,863 participants in the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009-2023). We reduce selection bias by using an occupation-level WFH measure derived from the UK Labour Force Survey. Before March 2020, increased WFH in men's occupations improved their mental health. For women, it benefited those in routine jobs but worsened outcomes for professionals. The pattern reversed from March 2020, with WFH positively impacting the mental health of professional women but not that of men or women in routine jobs. These findings highlight the importance of social positions and institutional contexts in shaping the mental health effects of WFH.