{"id":20822,"date":"2024-07-29T10:05:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T17:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/?p=20822"},"modified":"2026-03-05T09:41:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T17:41:40","slug":"moms-cognitive-burden-chores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/moms-cognitive-burden-chores\/","title":{"rendered":"Moms think more about household chores \u2212 and this cognitive burden hurts their mental\u00a0health"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/Saxby_Chores_Top-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/Saxby_Chores_Top-1920x1080.jpg 1920w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/Saxby_Chores_Top-1280x720.jpg 1280w,https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/Saxby_Chores_Top-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"A family meets in the kitchen around a white board about chores.\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Moms more often make the list, even when dads help cross things off it. (Image Source: iStock.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=health\">Health<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Moms think more about household chores \u2212 and this cognitive burden hurts their mental\u00a0health<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Moms execute more household tasks. But they\u2019re also family executives, doing more of the thinking ahead and assigning that are part of all those chores \u2014 bad news for their mental health.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Darby Saxbe and Lizzie Aviv<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">July 29, 2024<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span 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   \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>When you think about housework, you likely think of actions: scrubbing the dishes, running errands, chopping vegetables for dinner. And it\u2019s not news to say that <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/jomf.12762\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mothers often shoulder the burden<\/a> for most of those activities.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s an invisible dimension of household labor that unfolds behind the scenes: the cognitive effort that goes into anticipating needs, planning, organizing and delegating household tasks. In other words, someone has to remember to replace the dish soap and select which vegetables to chop.<\/p>\n<p>Our new research found that this cognitive dimension of housework, often called the \u201cmental load,\u201d is divided even more unevenly within couples than the physical dimension \u2014 and it seems to take a particular mental health toll on women. According to the study we published in the Archives of Women\u2019s Mental Health, mothers who take on a more <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s00737-024-01490-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disproportionate share of cognitive household labor report<\/a> higher levels of depression, stress, relationship dissatisfaction and burnout.<\/p>\n<h2>Tracking who does what<\/h2>\n<p>We asked 322 mothers of young children about who in their family is responsible for 30 common household tasks. We collaborated with the creators of the Fair Play system \u2014 a book and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fairplaylife.com\/the-cards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">card game<\/a> designed to better quantify the division of labor within households \u2014 to divide each task into two dimensions: cognitive (anticipating, planning, delegating and thinking about household tasks) and physical (the hands-on execution of household tasks). We then examined how these tasks are shared between partners.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20983\" src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/moms-bear-burden-of-cognitive-household-labor-in-families-chart.png\" alt=\"Chart titled: Moms bear burden of cognitive household labor in families\" width=\"1220\" height=\"1492\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/moms-bear-burden-of-cognitive-household-labor-in-families-chart.png 1220w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/moms-bear-burden-of-cognitive-household-labor-in-families-chart-450x550.png 450w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/moms-bear-burden-of-cognitive-household-labor-in-families-chart-837x1024.png 837w, https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/moms-bear-burden-of-cognitive-household-labor-in-families-chart-768x939.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1220px) 100vw, 1220px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We found a striking gender disparity: Mothers not only performed more physical housework but also carried a significantly greater share of cognitive labor compared with their partners.<\/p>\n<p>On average, mothers reported being responsible for about 73% of all cognitive household labor compared with their partners\u2019 27%, and 64% of all physical household labor compared with their partners\u2019 36%. Indeed, for every single task we examined, the gender difference was larger for the cognitive dimension than the physical execution dimension.<\/p>\n<p>There was only one task in which fathers did more planning and execution: taking out the garbage. Fathers also carried out more home maintenance tasks, but mothers did more of the related planning.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, while an unequal division of physical tasks was linked to worse couple relationship quality, it was the cognitive labor that had a more profound impact on women\u2019s psychological well-being.<\/p>\n<h2>Family dynamics have societal impact<\/h2>\n<p>An unequal division of household labor is a key driver of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unwomen.org\/en\/news\/in-focus\/csw61\/redistribute-unpaid-work\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">global gender inequity<\/a>, suppressing women\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/family\/archive\/2022\/05\/unpaid-domestic-labor-essential-work\/629839\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">full participation in the paid workforce<\/a> and significantly affecting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newamerica.org\/better-life-lab\/better-life-lab-experiments\/bllx-blogs\/gender-and-household-labor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">women\u2019s health and well-being<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Our study is one of the first to investigate the cognitive dimension of household labor and its effects on maternal mental health. Cognitive labor may be particularly taxing for women because it often runs behind the scenes and goes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mindbodygreen.com\/articles\/what-is-the-mental-load\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unacknowledged or unappreciated by others<\/a>. It also pulls mental energy away from other priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Additional studies indicate that women experience <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/2676377\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more negative effects from child care and housework<\/a> compared with men, such as higher depression rates, partly due to the heavier cognitive load they carry.<\/p>\n<h2>What still isn\u2019t known<\/h2>\n<p>Our study was limited by its reliance on self-reported household labor and by the fact that we were able to collect data only from mothers in cohabiting, heterosexual couple relationships. Future studies can survey both partners and directly observe what chores couples do at home. They can also look at different kinds of relationship configurations, including gay and lesbian couples.<\/p>\n<p>We also don\u2019t know much about the long-term effects of the division of cognitive labor on women\u2019s mental health and cognitive functioning.<\/p>\n<p>The unfair division of housework is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/09\/30\/upshot\/women-mental-health-labor.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">frequent source of stress in relationships<\/a> and often cited by women as a <a href=\"https:\/\/greatergood.berkeley.edu\/article\/item\/how_an_unfair_division_of_labor_hurts_your_relationship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reason for divorce<\/a>. The cognitive load may be an underappreciated aspect of the domestic workload that warrants more attention from couples therapists, mental health counselors and premarital relationship educators.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/233953\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/darby-saxbe-346015\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Darby Saxbe<\/a>, Professor of <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/psyc\/\">Psychology<\/a>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/usc-dornsife-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences-2669\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences<\/a><\/em> and <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/lizzie-aviv-1549282\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lizzie Aviv<\/a>, Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/university-of-southern-california-1265\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">University of Southern California<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This article is republished from <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/moms-think-more-about-household-chores-and-this-cognitive-burden-hurts-their-mental-health-233953\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--section-title\">\n\n    \n  <h2>\n          Related Articles\n      <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/us-and-iran-how-decades-of-mistrust-led-to-open-warfare\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >US and Iran: A brief history of how decades of mistrust and bad blood led to open\u00a0warfare<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/dexter-holland-the-offspring-usc-dornsife-commencement-speaker-2026\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Dexter Holland, frontman for rock band The Offspring, to deliver USC Dornsife commencement address<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/matthew-pratt-aaas-fellow\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >USC Dornsife chemistry professor named fellow of leading global scientific organization<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Moms execute more household tasks. But they\u2019re also family executives, doing more of the thinking ahead and assigning that are part of all those chores \u2013 bad news for their mental health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":20824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[87,112,60,83],"class_list":["post-20822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-expert-viewpoint","tag-psychology","tag-research","tag-the-conversation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Moms think more about household chores \u2212 and this cognitive burden hurts their mental\u00a0health<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Moms execute more household tasks. But they\u2019re also family executives, doing more of the thinking ahead and assigning that are part of all those chores \u2013 bad news for their mental health.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/moms-cognitive-burden-chores\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Moms think about chores more, affecting their mental health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Moms execute more household tasks. But they\u2019re also family executives, doing more of the thinking ahead and assigning that are part of all those chores \u2013 bad news for their mental health.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/moms-cognitive-burden-chores\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"USC Dornsife News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uscdornsife\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-29T17:05:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-05T17:41:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/Saxby_Chores_Top.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Liu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uscdornsife\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uscdornsife\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/moms-cognitive-burden-chores\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/moms-cognitive-burden-chores\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Liu\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/d03084ed5319ed7575c96017879a7447\"},\"headline\":\"Moms think more about household chores \u2212 and this cognitive burden hurts their mental\u00a0health\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-29T17:05:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-05T17:41:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/moms-cognitive-burden-chores\/\"},\"wordCount\":14,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/moms-cognitive-burden-chores\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/Saxby_Chores_Top.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"expert viewpoint\",\"psychology\",\"research\",\"the conversation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Health\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/moms-cognitive-burden-chores\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/moms-cognitive-burden-chores\/\",\"name\":\"Moms think about chores more, affecting their mental health\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/moms-cognitive-burden-chores\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/moms-cognitive-burden-chores\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/Saxby_Chores_Top.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-29T17:05:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-05T17:41:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"Moms execute more household tasks. 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