Life Satisfaction and its Relationship to Mothers’ Challenges during the COVID-19 Lockdown in Germany in Light of the Family Stress Theory

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic brought massive disruption and new challenges for employees in system-relevant professions. During the lockdowns, employees of the German Federal Employment Agency (FEA) suddenly had to cope with increased workloads, while mostly working from home. Within the family, the division of housework, especially childcare, had to be renegotiated under these conditions. Based on the Family Stress Theory and family norms, we aimed to identify relevant family-related factors that lead to changes in life satisfaction during the lockdown period, assuming that the division of caring tasks influences mothers' well-being. For this purpose, we conduct an online-survey during the lockdown in March 2021 among 553 females mainly working in the FEA and perform OLS regressions to identify relevant factors. The results show that in partnership households, women's life satisfaction and satisfaction with the distribution of tasks are mainly influenced by the time spent by the partner in childcare. This suggests that the 'traditional' role of women may no longer be accepted and that women want at least a more balanced distribution of tasks between partners. Overall, this comprehensive study on maternal life satisfaction during the COVID-19 lockdown in Germany contributes to the understanding of the challenges faced by mothers in times of crisis and provides valuable implications, such as the need for childcare support and equal distribution of work among partners, to reduce negative consequences on females’ life satisfaction during external shock events, especially for system-relevant employees.