Parenthood, Behaviours in Paid and Unpaid Work, and Well-being among dual earner couples in the UK

This project uses two large-scale nationally representative datasets and advanced quantitative methods to investigate whether and how dual-earner couples' time-use patterns and well-being vary alongside the intersectional axes of parenthood, gender and social class. The project carries the promise of providing many critical contributions and implications. Firstly, it will provide new insights into how parenthood influence dual-earner couples' behaviours in paid
work (e.g., work hours, work schedules) and domestic work (e.g., childcare/housework hours, division within households). Secondly, the project will explore whether parenthood improves or inhibits subjective well-being (e.g., job/life satisfaction, instantaneous feelings) and whether such associations are moderated or mediated by socio-demographic characteristics and time use behaviours. Thirdly, individual variations and spillover effects between couples will be
captured. Fourthly, this project aims to give precise details on dual-earner couples' time-use patterns in private sphere and labour market using time diary data, which is a more reliable method for estimating time-use than stylised data, and reduces memory bias and systematic errors (Kan, 2008).