U.S. Parents' Divisions of Labor During COVID-19, Waves 1-5

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically altered family life in the United States. Over the long duration of the pandemic, parents had to adapt to shifting work conditions, virtual schooling, the closure of daycare facilities, and the stress of not only managing households without domestic and care supports but also worrying that family members may contract the novel coronavirus.  Reports early in the pandemic suggest that these burdens have fallen disproportionately on mothers, creating concerns about the long-term implications of the pandemic for gender inequality and mothers’ well-being. Nevertheless, less is known about how parents’ engagement in domestic labor and paid work has changed throughout the pandemic and beyond, what factors may be driving these changes, and what the long-term consequences of the pandemic may be for the gendered division of labor and gender inequality more generally.  

The Study on U.S. Parents’ Divisions of Labor During COVID-19 (SPDLC) collects longitudinal survey data from partnered U.S. parents that can be used to assess changes in parents’ divisions of domestic labor, divisions of paid labor, and well-being throughout and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of SPDLC is to understand both the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic for the gendered division of labor, work-family issues, and broader patterns of gender inequality.  

Survey data for this study is collected using Prolifc (www.prolific.co), an opt-in online platform designed to facilitate scientific research. The sample is comprised U.S. adults who were residing with a romantic partner and at least one biological child (at the time of entry into the study). In each survey, parents answer questions about both themselves and their partners. Wave 1 of the SPDLC was conducted in April 2020, and parents who participated in Wave 1 were asked about their division of labor both prior to (i.e., early March 2020) and one month after the pandemic began. Wave 2 of the SPDLC was collected in November 2020. Parents who participated in Wave 1 were invited to participate again in Wave 2, and a new cohort of parents was also recruited to participate in the Wave 2 survey. Wave 3 of SPDLC was collected in October 2021. Parents who participated in either of the first two waves were invited to participate again in Wave 3, and another new cohort of parents was also recruited to participate in the Wave 3 survey. Wave 4 of the SPDLC was collected in October 2022. Parents who participated in either of the first three waves were invited to participate again in Wave 4, and another new cohort of parents was also recruited to participate in the Wave 4 survey. Wave 5 of the SPDLC was collected in October 2023. Parents who participated in any of the first four waves were invited to participate again in Wave 5, and another new cohort of parents was also recruited to participate in the Wave 5 survey. Wave 6 of the SPDLC was collected in October 2024. Parents who participated in any of the first four waves were invited to participate again in Wave 6, and another new cohort of parents was also recruited to participate in the Wave 6 survey. Overall, the SPDLC contains six waves of data spanning the period from March 2020 through October 2024, collected from over 6,700 parents who were surveyed at least once throughout the duration of the study.  

SPDLC data will be released to the public two years after data is collected; Waves 1-4 are currently publicly available. Wave 5 will be publicly available in October 2025, with subsequent waves becoming available yearly. Data will be available to download in both SPSS (.sav) and Stata (.dta) formats, and the following data files will be available: (1) a data file for each individual wave, which contains responses from all participants in that wave of data collection, (2) a longitudinal panel data file, which contains longitudinal follow-up data from all available waves, and (3) a repeated cross-section data file, which contains the repeated cross-section data (from new respondents at each wave) from all available waves. Codebooks for each survey wave and a detailed user guide describing the data are also available.

 Geographic Coverage:   United States

Time Period(s):   4/2020 – 10/2023 (April 2020 (Wave 1 survey) to October 2023 (Wave 5 survey))

Universe:    To be included in SPDLC, respondents had to meet the following sampling criteria at the time they enter the study: (a) be at least 18 years old, (b) reside in the United States, (c) reside with a romantic partner (i.e., be married or cohabiting), and (d) be a parent living with at least one biological child. Follow-up respondents must be at least 18 years old and reside in the United States, but may experience changes in relationship and resident parent statuses.

Data Type(s):   survey data

   

 Response Rate:   There was a 77% response rate among respondents who participated in each of the four previous waves (N = 261) and a 64% response rate among W4 new cohort respondents (N = 646). Of the original Wave 1 cohort, 80% of respondents have participated in at least two waves, and 56% of respondents have participated in at least three waves. In total, the longitudinal panel includes data from 4,551 unique respondents, 66% of whom have participated in at least one follow-up survey. 

Sampling:   The fifth wave of the SPDLC was fielded in October 2023 in two stages. In the first stage, all parents who participated in any of the previous four waves of the SPDLC and who continued to reside in the United States were re-contacted and asked to participate in a follow-up survey. Follow-up respondents were not required to be married or cohabiting at W5 (86 parents reported being separated/divorced or no longer in a romantic relationship). The W5 survey was posted on Prolific, and messages were sent via Prolific’s messaging system to all previous participants. Multiple follow-up messages were sent in an attempt to increase response rates to the follow-up survey. A total of 2,184 returning respondents took the survey. After data quality checks, 5% of respondents were removed from the sample, resulting in a final sample size of 2,082 parents. In regard to response rates of respondents from previous waves, there was a 77% response rate among respondents who participated in each of the four previous waves (N = 261) and a 64% response rate among W4 new cohort respondents (N = 646).

In the second stage of W5 of the SPDLC, a new sample of parents was recruited. New parents had to meet the same sampling criteria as in the previous waves (be at least 18 years old, reside in the United States, reside with a romantic partner, and be a parent living with at least one biological child). Also similar to procedures in previous waves, we oversampled men, Black individuals, individuals who did not complete college, and individuals who identified as politically conservative to increase sample diversity. A total of 1,150 new parents participated in the W5 survey. A total of 6.6% of the initial respondents were removed from the sample for failing to pass data quality checks (58 parents who did not complete at least 75% of the survey, and 18 parents who did not pass the attention filters). As such, the final sample size of new respondents at Wave 5 includes 1,074 parents (providing data for 2,148 partners). 

In both stages, participants were informed that the survey would take approximately 22 minutes to complete. All panelists were provided monetary compensation in line with Prolific’s compensation guidelines, which require that all participants earn above minimum wage for their time participating in studies. 

Data Source:   Prolific (www.prolific.co)

Scales:   The following established scales are included in the survey:

• Self-Efficacy, adapted from Pearlin's mastery scale (Pearlin et al., 1981) and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 2015) and taken from the American Changing Lives Survey
• Communication with Partner, taken from the Marriage and Relationship Survey (Lichter & Carmalt, 2009)
• Gender Attitudes, taken from the National Survey of Families and Households (Sweet & Bumpass, 1996)
• Depressive Symptoms (CES-D-10)
• Stress, measured using Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983)
• Children's Behavior Problems, measured using the Behavior Problem Index (NLS, n.d.)
• Fathering Attitudes, measured using the scale developed by Brittany McGill (2014)
• Work-Family Conflict, measured using a validated scale (Matthews, Kath, & Barnes-Farrell, 2010)

Full details about these scales and all other items included in the survey can be found in the user guide and codebook

Weights:  To help provide estimates that are more representative of U.S. partnered parents, the SPDLC includes sampling weights. Weights can be included in statistical analyses to make estimates from the SPDLC sample representative of U.S. parents who reside with a romantic partner (married or cohabiting) and a child aged 18 or younger based on age, race/ethnicity, and gender. National estimates for the age, racial/ethnic, and gender profile of U.S. partnered parents were obtained using data from the 2023 Current Population Survey (CPS). Weights were calculated using an iterative raking method, such that the full sample in each data file matches the nationally representative CPS data in regard to the gender, age, and racial/ethnic distributions within the data. This variable is labeled CPSweightW5 in the Wave 5 dataset, and CPSweightLW5 in the longitudinal dataset (which includes Waves 1-5). There is not a weight variable included in the W1-W5 repeated cross-section data file.

Unit(s) of Observation:  Individual

Geographic Unit:  U.S. State

Related Publications

The following publications cite the data in this project.

• Petts, Richard J., Daniel L. Carlson, and Jaclyn S. Wong. “Cognitive Housework and Parents’ Relationship Satisfaction.” Journal of Marriage and Family 87, no. 4 (August 2025): 1767–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.13082.

• Petts, Richard J., Daniel L. Carlson, and Wen Fan. “Work-Place Mismatch, Work-Family Conflict, and Psychological Well-Being among Parents.” Society and Mental Health, June 24, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1177/21568693251344326.

• Petts, Richard J., and Daniel L. Carlson. “Trajectories of U.S. Parents’ Remote Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 10 (January 2024). https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231241266764.

• Petts, Richard, and Daniel Carlson. “Trajectories of US Parents’ Divisions of Domestic Labor throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Demographic Research 51 (August 9, 2024): 377–424. https://doi.org/10.4054/demres.2024.51.12.