Who is wearing a mask? Gender-, age-, and location-related differences during the COVID-19 pandemic

Haischer, Michael H.; Beilfuss, Rachel; Hart, Meggie Rose; Opielinski, Lauren E.; Wrucke, David J.; Zirgaitis, Gretchen; Uhrich, Toni D.; Hunter, Sandra K.

doi:10.1101/2020.07.13.20152736

Cited by 117 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Third, we find that COVID-19 may be creating new sources of challenges for couples by leading some partners to question mothers' concerns about the seriousness of COVID-19. These findings reveal the consequences of political (Barrios & Hochberg, 2020;Gollust et al, 2020;Kushner et al, 2020;Painter & Qiu, 2020) and gender (Haischer et al, 2020;Kramer, 2020) gaps in attitudes about COVID-19. Specifically, and like other pre-pandemic research (Afifi et al, 2020;Bélanger & Eagles, 2007;Huckfeldt et al, 2004;van Duyn, 2018) we find that disagreements about politicized topics like the COVID-19 pandemic can be a serious source of conflict in families.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…That said, research shows that a substantial minority of couples disagree about politics (Bélanger & Eagles, 2007;Huckfeldt et al, 2004), reflecting, in part, the fact that women's political attitudes skew more liberal than men's (Kellstedt et al, 2010;Manza & Brooks, 1998). With respect to COVID-19, research also shows that women are taking the pandemic more seriously and taking more steps to prevent its spread (e.g., wearing masks) (Haischer et al, 2020;Kramer, 2020).…”

Section: Creating New Conflictsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“My Husband Thinks I’m Crazy”: COVID-19-Related Conflict in Couples with Young Children

Calarco¹,

Meanwell²,

Anderson³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Objective: We examine how disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic are creating conflicts for couples with young children. Background: National polls suggest that COVID-19 has led to increased conflict for couples in the U.S. Although scholars have not examined the source of these new conflicts, pre-pandemic research suggests that pandemic-related disruptions may create conflicts around paid work and parenting, economic security, politics, and health decision-making. Method: This study uses the Pandemic Parenting Study, a mixed-methods study of Southern Indiana mothers, conducted April-May 2020, and involving surveys (N=139), diary entries (N=104), and in-depth interviews (N=65). We examine mothers’ reports of pandemic-related changes in their frustrations with their partners and how those changes vary with the disruptions couples have experienced during the pandemic. We then use qualitative data to understand how pandemic-related disruptions are generating conflicts for couples and what consequences those conflicts have.Results: A substantial minority of mothers (39%) report pandemic-related increases in their frustrations with their partners. These frustrations are particularly common among mothers whose partners are (reportedly) providing insufficient support with pandemic parenting or dismissing mothers’ concerns about COVID-19. Mothers blame themselves for these conflicts and feel responsible for reducing them, including by leaving the workforce, beginning use of antidepressants, or ignoring their own concerns about COVID-19.Conclusion: The pandemic has exacerbated longstanding sources of conflict (related to partners’ insufficient support with parenting) and created new sources of conflict (related to partners’ dismissals of mothers’ concerns about COVID-19), with serious implications for mothers, families, and public health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Creating New Conflictsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“My Husband Thinks I’m Crazy”: COVID-19-Related Conflict in Couples with Young Children

Calarco¹,

Meanwell²,

Anderson³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many popular press authors have suggested that men are less likely to wear face masks than women ( Haischer et al, 2020 ; Vershbow, 2020 ). 1 Men are known to engage more in risky active health behaviors 2 than women, such as smoking, drinking, and drug use ( Finucane et al, 2000 ; Hughes et al, 2016 ; Minugh et al, 1998 ), but men and women are known to engage in similar amounts in passive health behaviors, such as vaccinating and presenteeism ( Flanagan et al, 2017 ; Miraglia & Johns, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, face mask perceptions, and face mask wearing: Are men being dangerous during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Howard

2021

Personality and Individual Differences

118

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Recent popular press authors have proposed that men are less likely to wear face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigate this notion in the current article by analyzing three extant datasets. We also assess the mediating effect of eight different face mask perceptions in the relation between gender and face mask wearing via the Face Mask Perceptions Scale. Across the three datasets, the sample-size weighted meta-analytic correlation between gender and face mask wearing was not statistically significant, and no face mask perception was a consistent mediator of this effect. Gender did have significant relations with two face mask perceptions, however. Men were more likely to perceive face masks as infringing on their independence, whereas women were more likely to perceive face masks as uncomfortable. Therefore, although gender does not relate to whether a person wears a face mask, it does relate to face mask perceptions. We offer several suggestions for research and practice from these results, such as the positioning of face mask wearing alongside passive health behaviors, the broader study of face mask perceptions' outcomes beyond face mask wearing, as well as the creation of interventions to target differing face mask perceptions across genders.

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“…Observational studies in Wisconsin and surveys nationwide in April/May reported about 2-fold higher rates of face covering usage among older adults versus younger adults and minors. (16)(17)(18) In addition, due to the shortage of surgical masks during March-May, (26) We also note there remain large uncertainties in our estimates due to several limitations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…the gaps between the dashed and solid blue lines; Fig 4) appeared to increase with age and were largest among the two elderly age groups who have been reported to more frequently use masks. (16)(17)(18) However, infants (<1 year) appeared to have a larger reduction than other children groups; this could have been due to transmission reduction related to their sources of infection (e.g. their caretakers and healthcare settings where they tended to be exposed).…”

Section: Effectiveness Of Face Covering/maskingmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Transmission Dynamics and Effectiveness of Public Health Interventions in New York City during the 2020 Spring Pandemic Wave

Yang

Shaff

Shaman

2020

Preprint

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New York City experienced a large COVID-19 pandemic wave during March - May 2020. We model the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in the city during the pandemic and estimate the effectiveness of public health interventions (overall and for each major intervention separately) for the entire population and by age group. We estimate that the overall effective reproductive number was 2.99 at the beginning of the pandemic wave and reduced to 0.93 one week after the stay-at-home mandate. Most age groups experienced similar reductions in transmission. Interventions reducing contact rates were associated with a 70.7% (95% CI: 65.0 - 76.4%) reduction of transmission overall and >50% for all age groups during the pandemic. Face covering was associated with a 6.6% (95% CI: 0.8 - 12.4%) reduction of transmission overall and up to 20% for 65+ year-olds during the first month of implementation. Accounting for the amount of time masks are in use (i.e. mainly outside homes), these findings indicate universal masking could reduce transmission by up to 28-32% when lockdown-like measures are lifted, if the high effectiveness estimated for older adults were achieved for all ages. These estimates are verified by out-of-fit projections and support the need for implementing multiple interventions simultaneously in order to effectively mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

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Who is wearing a mask? Gender-, age-, and location-related differences during the COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 117 publications

References 15 publications

“My Husband Thinks I’m Crazy”: COVID-19-Related Conflict in Couples with Young Children

“My Husband Thinks I’m Crazy”: COVID-19-Related Conflict in Couples with Young Children

Gender, face mask perceptions, and face mask wearing: Are men being dangerous during the COVID-19 pandemic?

COVID-19 Transmission Dynamics and Effectiveness of Public Health Interventions in New York City during the 2020 Spring Pandemic Wave

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