The mental health of female and male homemakers: A longitudinal study using Dutch population register data

Abstract

Homemakers—those staying at home while their partner works—often report higher life satisfaction and happiness than workers, but it remains to be seen whether this holds for their mental health. We investigate how the mental health of homemakers compares to their mental health while they were working, considering gender, parenthood, and homemaking duration. Using longitudinal Dutch (medical) register data from 2006 to 2021, we apply fixed-effects individual slopes models and dummy impact functions. We find that male homemakers maintain similar mental health as when they were working. Female homemakers without minor children, however, use primary mental health care services less than they did while working, indicating an improvement in mental health. While homemaking itself does not influence antidepressant prescriptions, our findings suggest an increase in prescriptions before the transition to homemaking. Furthermore, we find no significant changes in mental health over the duration of homemaking.