The feeling of tiredness among Swedish parents: a longitudinal cohort comparison

Nilsson K. The feeling of tiredness among Swedish parents: a longitudinal cohort comparison Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 424–432 © 2009 The Author, Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. In Europe, there is an ongoing debate on how to combine work and family life, a problem many women face today. Implicit in this debate is that women are more affected by having children compared with women in earlier generations. This article presents a cohort study on how Swedish women and men's reported feelings of tiredness is affected by having children. Longitudinal results representing three cohorts show that both men and women in general report more feelings of tiredness in the early 2000s compared with the 1980s. Being a first‐time mother or father is connected with more feelings of tiredness among the latest cohort studied. However, when control variables are included, the effect of becoming a first‐time parent weakens, especially for men. Finally, the effect of becoming a first‐time mother is no longer significant when controlling for age.