Childcare constraints are an underexamined dimension of women’s well-being in rapidly urbanizing low-income settings. This cross-sectional mixed-methods study examines how the availability and type of household childcare support shape maternal psychological distress and sleep quality among low-income mothers of young children in urban Bangladesh, drawing on survey data from 3,529 mothers across Dhaka, Gazipur, Tongi, and Savar alongside sixteen in-depth qualitative interviews.
Researchers: Aloka Ahmed Oishy; Ishraq Sabbir Nirjhor; Raisa Adiba; and Shaila Ahmed, PhD
Partners: Gates Foundation (GF)
Timeline: 2023–2026
Status: Ongoing
Contact: Raisa Adiba; raisa.adiba@bracu.ac.bd
Context
Childcare access in urban low-income households of Bangladesh is severely limited, constraining women’s economic participation and concentrating caregiving responsibilities on mothers. Rapid urban migration, cramped housing, and the transient nature of city livelihoods leave many families without the extended-kin networks that traditionally provided care, while affordable formal services remain scarce and unevenly distributed. The consequences of this care burden for maternal psychological health and sleep are plausible but rarely measured directly. Although childcare constraints are widely discussed in relation to employment, few studies link household childcare availability to mothers’ mental well-being and rest in low-income settings. This study addresses that gap by examining how childcare support shapes maternal distress and sleep quality.
Objectives
This study aims to understand how household childcare arrangements relate to the mental well-being of mothers in low-income urban Bangladesh. It seeks to estimate the association between the availability of childcare support and maternal psychological distress, and to examine how the source of that support, whether provided within the household or arranged outside it, relates to mothers’ distress levels and sleep quality. The study further aims to surface the everyday mechanisms through which childcare constraints affect mothers’ rest and emotional health, drawing on their own accounts to interpret the quantitative patterns.
Methodology
This study uses a cross-sectional, mixed-methods design that combines a large household survey with a smaller set of in-depth interviews. The survey covers 3,529 low-income mothers, each with at least one child under eight years of age, living across four urban areas: Dhaka, Gazipur, Tongi, and Savar. Mothers’ psychological distress is captured using the widely used Kessler-10 scale, alongside their own reports of sleep quality and how often they wake during the night. The quantitative analysis estimates how childcare support relates to distress and sleep while accounting for differences between locations and the clustered structure of the sample. To understand the reasons behind these patterns, sixteen in-depth interviews were analyzed thematically, allowing mothers’ own explanations of how caregiving shapes their rest and emotional health to inform the interpretation.
Findings and Recommendations
Forthcoming.
