PERCEPTION OF FATHERS AND MOTHERS ON MENTAL LOAD RELATED TO FAMILY WORK: A STUDY BASED ON FOCUS GROUPS.

• Grant number: 23/10024-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2024
• End date: January 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Sabrina Mazo D'Affonseca
• Grantee: Sofia Rosana Zappa Lodi
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has accentuated gender inequality in the division of household chores and further exposed the disproportionate mental load placed on women compared to their partners in family work. Studies indicate that mothers take on the majority of organizational tasks, while fathers tend to neglect them. Consequently, women perform an invisible, enduring, and boundaryless workload, with these factors intensified in low-income families. Therefore, the present research aims to analyze the perception of fathers and mothers regarding the mental load of family work. The study will involve 10 females and 10 male participants, aged 18 years or older, with children under the age of 12. They will be divided into two focus groups and each group will have an approximately 2-hour-in-person meeting in 2 days with the researcher at a location that meets the collection needs. The meeting will be audio-recorded to aid data analysis, which will subsequently be transcribed and qualitatively evaluated based on theme. The objective is to understand how situations of mental load manifest in family context for fathers and mothers, classify the observed dimensions resembling existing literature and examine the factors and impact of mental load on the individual.