Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Make It Worse? Working from Home and Affective Well-Being at the Intersections of Parental Status and Occupation

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented expansion of working from home. To capture the individual well-being implications of this profound social change, the authors examine how workers’ affective well-being changed from pre-pandemic to the pandemic era and how such change varied at the intersections of work location, parental status, and occupational teleworkability. Data came from the American Time Use Survey (2003–2021), the American Community Survey, the Current Population Survey, and the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker. Ordinary Least Squares models show that the pandemic exacerbated negative affect the most for remote-working parents in less-teleworkable occupations. This pandemic impact was most pronounced during school closures, suggesting that rising challenges in balancing work–family demands heightened negative affect among remote-working parents with less-teleworkable occupations. Overall, this study reveals the heterogeneous well-being impacts of working from home and highlights the adverse implications of weak care infrastructures and inadequate workplace support for parental well-being.