Caregiving solutions in Mexican households during COVID-19 lockdown

The COVID-19 quarantine in Mexico has meant that household members spend more time inside the home, increasing the demand for direct and indirect care by minors, the elderly, chronically ill and disabled. This forced a reconfiguration of the provision of these services by household members. The aim of the document is twofold: first, to describe socioeconomic and demographic aspects of Mexican households around care activities during the quarantine and second, to estimate the determinants of the provision of care in the quarantine. The information was obtained from the Survey of Care and COVID-19 in Mexican Homes during Quarantine (SCCMHQ). The propensity score-matching technique is used as a quasi-experimental procedure to estimate the causal effects of a treatment variable (presence of minors, elderly, chronically ill, disability, or domestic service in the home) in Mexican households. The Probit model shows that age and economic dependency are determinants of caregiving for treatment groups with minors, disability and chronic disease. In addition, sex, home income, and current employment situation are significant for treatment groups with a disability, paid domestic work, and minors, respectively. A positive “net” effect of the treatment variables in the probability of care provision was also observed. Particularly, the existence of minors at home was highly effective to promote direct and indirect care. The confinement solution is characterized by a balance between genders, except in the case of households with disabilities. This shows that a cultural and functional change is possible in the distribution of care responsibilities, which can be consolidated through public policies.