London

In an attempt to understand the ‘worry gap’ between the sexes ever since the Covid pandemic, a study has found that women are twice as likely to be worried when compared to men.

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According to the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), UK’s independent social research institute, women are now worrying more about work-life balance, parents, and having children, while a minuscule 9 per cent of men said that they worry about the same.

The research, published in January, found out that the ‘worry gap’ between males and females wasn’t as stark before the pandemic, reports Sky News.

The largest divide in levels of worry was seen in the health and wellbeing matrix, whereby three times more women than men expressed serious concern about their lives.

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The same level of difference was observed in other spheres, whereby 43 per cent of women said they were experiencing "intergenerational worries" about their children and parents compared to 1 per cent of the men.

While 31 per cent of women said they were extremely worried about their work-life balance, compared with 20 per cent of men.

“While overall levels of worry appear to be the same in 2022 as they were pre-pandemic, this conceals a stark 'worry gap' that has opened up between women and men," the study's co-author Josefien Breedvelt was quoted as saying.

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"Women may still be experiencing a greater impact from the ongoing legacy and stress that the pandemic brought about.

"If ongoing challenges from the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis fall disproportionately on women, we may see an even greater divergence in levels of worry between men and women in Britain."

The study is part of NatCen's annual Society Watch report which seeks to examine the kind of impact COVID-19 pandemic had on social lives by extrapolating a representative sample of their worry levels. It then compared the answers to those collected in 2018 and 2019 to arrive at their conclusion.

(With inputs from agencies)

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