The impact of closing schools on working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence using panel data from Japan

Abstract

COVID-19 has led to the closure of various schools in Japan to cope with the pandemic. This study explores how school closure influences parents’ work style based on short panel data for the period of school closure from mid-March to mid-April 2020. Specifically, we analyze how the presence of their children influences parents’ work at home and examine how the effect differs by the parent’s gender. After controlling for various factors, we find that in cases where parents are full-time employees and the children are: (1) in primary school, mothers are more likely to work remotely, while fathers are less likely to do so and (2) in junior high school, the parents’ work styles are hardly affected. This shows that mothers shoulder the burden of working remotely and caring for small children at home, while fathers tend to work in the office and spend less time with their childcare at home. Inevitably, COVID-19 has increased the inequality in the burden of child care.

Mental health over nine months during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic: Representative cross-sectional survey in twelve waves between April and December 2020 in Austria

“…Beside young people, those in healthcare or in other occupational settings with possible Covid-19 exposure, women experienced an increase in depressive symptoms and anxiety over time during the pandemic. Studies have highlighted the burden from the current double strain on women based on their traditional family roles and work responsibilities ( Takaku and Yokoyama, 2020 ) Some research further suggests that the pandemic has reinforced these traditional gender roles ( Yamamura and Tsustsui, 2021 ), and females have been shown to be more affected by unemployment during the pandemic in Austria ( Bock-Schappelwein and Hyll, 2020 ) and elsewhere ( Ueda et al , 2020 ).…”

School closures and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

“…Women's social status in Japan is far lower than that of women in other developed Western countries such as the UK (Nemoto 2016). Therefore, because of differences in bargaining power, mothers are more obliged to shoulder a larger share of childcare responsibilities (Yamamura and Tsutsui 2021a).…”

“…Brodeur et al 2020;Sabat et al 2020;Yamamura and Tsutsui 2020). 1 There is a gap in working from home between working mothers who have children of primary school age and other working women during the COVID-19 spread (Yamamura and Tsutsui 2021a). Changes in working style seem to influence mental health.…”

The Impacts of COVID-19 on Early Childhood Education: Capturing the Unique Challenges Associated with Remote Teaching and Learning in K-2

“…Due to the complex and multifaced nature of early primary education, the shift to remote teaching and learning proved to be quite difficult for teachers, parents, and students (Timmons et al, 2020;Yamamura & Tsustsui, 2021). Ontario's Pedagogy for the Early Years identifies four conditions required for children in their learning: (1) belonging-which involves connecting with others and forming relationships, (2) well-being-which focuses on the physical and mental health of students, (3) engagement-which involves creating opportunities for students to explore with their natural curiosity, and (4) expression-which focuses on providing opportunities for students to communicate in a variety of forms (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2014b).…”