Gender, work-family conflict and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic among Quebec graduate students

The increasing mental health inequalities between women and men following the COVID-19 crisis represent a major public health concern. Public health measures to mitigate the pandemic could severely impact populations with high prevalence of mental health problems such as graduate students. We aimed to document the gendered experience of the lockdown and its association with depressive symptoms among graduate students in Quebec. We contrast two hypotheses: whether inequalities in depressive symptoms between women and men could be linked to their differential exposure or vulnerability to work, family and study conditions, with the mediating role of work-to-family interference (WIF) and family-to-work interference (FIW). This observational study used path analysis to test our hypotheses using a cross-sectional data collected from 1,790 graduate students from three universities in Quebec. The exposure hypothesis received more support. Women reported more stress regarding new teaching methods, which was associated directly with more depressive symptoms, and indirectly through WIF. Women were more worried about COVID-19, which was associated with more depressive symptoms, and indirectly through WIF and FIW. However, women reported less FIW and more emotional support, both respectively associated with less depressive symptoms. The policy measures taken after the COVID-19 were not gender-neutral. This study demonstrates the importance of taking the potentially gendered effects of policies into consideration, and points to mitigating actions that can forestall the exacerbation of gendered inequalities in mental health.