This study explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed family life and relationships as well as how these changes affect perceived stress among married men and women. This study investigated changes in family time use, household work, child care, leisure activities, income and expenditures along with relationships between spouses and children using a sample of 627 married persons surveyed online from May 19 to 25, 2020. The results showed that the amount of time spent on household work, child care, and family leisure have increased and that the perceived burden of household work and child care has also increased. Gender differences were found in time use, household work, and child care. Leisure activities have changed toward more time watching TV or online media and playing online games and less time on outdoor activities, shopping, and meeting friends. About 38% of respondents reported a reduction in household income and 22% reported an increase in household debt. The majority experienced no change in the quality of relationships with spouses and children, approximately 20% of the sample reported a positive change in relationships with spouses and children. The findings of multivariate regression indicated that change in work time, negative change in household economy, negative change in household work and negative change in relationships with spouses were associated with marital stress. However, this study found that negative changes in child care and in relationships with children did not affect stress among married parents with children in elementary or secondary school.
Objective
The purpose of this study was to examine the direct and indirect relationships among economic hardship, economic strain, emotional stress, and couple conflict for married Koreans during the COVID‐19 pandemic. In particular, we investigated whether these pathways were different between lower and higher socioeconomic status (SES) groups.
Background
Due to the global economic downturn brought on by COVID‐19, many couples experienced economic hardship including increased household debt, job loss, and reduced work hours. This context provides a valuable opportunity to test the family stress model (FSM) of romantic relationships, which explains the indirect pathways from economic hardship to couple‐level outcomes.
Method
We collected the data using an online survey in May 2020, when the Seoul metropolitan area experienced the first surge of COVID‐19 cases. The sample came from 605 married Korean adults (282 women, 323 men) and was analyzed using multigroup path analysis.
Results
Among the three markers of economic hardship, increased household debt had a stronger association with couple conflict for
lower
SES respondents directly and indirectly through elevated economic strain and emotional distress. The total effects of job loss and reduced work hours on more frequent couple conflict were stronger for the
higher
SES group.
Conclusion
The process from the three markers of economic hardship to couple conflict was different depending on socioeconomic resources.
Implications
Family practitioners need to consider SES variations and to work with financial counselors to better support couples with both economic and relationship difficulties.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.