Covid-19 as an Engine of Family Reshuffling. Gender Equality and Relationship Quality during the Pandemic

The consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic are not limited solely to health and economics; couples’ relationships are also affected. There is, though, insufficient evidence as to how families are adapting to the new normal and the pandemic’s long-term effects on relationship quality. We use novel population-level data collected in September 2021 in Italy as part of the Familydemic Survey to examine variation and correlates of relationship quality in the advanced stages of the pandemic. Our findings suggest that the pandemic is responsible for huge variations in family life. When children are involved, approximately 45–50% of couples experienced changes in their relationship satisfaction. Couples have attempted to adapt to the new reality, experiencing both gains and losses in relationship quality. For couples with less egalitarian gender attitudes, and for couples in which the pandemic has fostered preexisting domestic gender inequalities, relationship quality declined. For more egalitarian couples, and for couples in which the pandemic has offered the opportunity for a new equilibrium with a more balanced division of unpaid work, relationship quality improved.