{"id":10214,"date":"2021-05-21T12:25:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/?post_type=resource&#038;p=10214"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:49:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:49:53","slug":"mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Gender and Household Size"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"covid-19-continues-to-have-a-serious-impact-on-mental-health-and-substance-use-with-differences-by-gender-and-household-size\">COVID-19 continues to have a serious impact on mental health and substance use, with differences by gender and household size<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A&nbsp;new&nbsp;report&nbsp;from the series of Leger polls&nbsp;commissioned by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccsa.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction<\/a> highlights the different impact of COVID-19-related stressors by gender and household size, and provides an update on impacts for people with pre-existing substance use disorders or mental illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The survey of more than 7,000 Canadian residents found that female respondents in households with children under 13 reported higher rates of anxiety and increased substance use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><u>Key findings<\/u>:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>More females report moderate-to-severe anxiety symptoms than males (29% vs 20%), with even higher rates for females and males in households with kids under 13 (37% vs 24%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Females in households with kids under 13 report higher rates of increased substance use than males (37% vs 26% for alcohol, 48% vs 37% for cannabis).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>More males report excellent or very good mental health than females (48% vs 35%), &nbsp;but more males report problematic alcohol use (28% vs 16%) and problematic cannabis use (43% vs 32%).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>People living alone are more likely to report moderate-to-severe depression symptoms (20% vs 15%), thoughts of suicide (9% vs 6%), and problematic alcohol use (31% vs 22%) compared to the rest of the population.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccsa.ca\/sites\/default\/files\/2021-05\/CCSA-COVID-19-Mental-Health-Substance-Use-Canadian-Households-Children-Infographic-2021-en.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Infographic<\/a>: Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Canadian Households with Young Children<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Other reports in the same series<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report\/\">Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: First Summary Report<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/leger-poll-summary-report-3-spotlight-on-income-employment-access\/\">Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Income, Employment, Access<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COVID-19 continues to have a serious impact on mental health and substance use, with differences by gender and household size A&nbsp;new&nbsp;report&nbsp;from the series of Leger polls&nbsp;commissioned by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction highlights the different impact of COVID-19-related stressors by gender and household size, and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18643,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[892,188,189],"tags":[],"program":[],"program-area":[269,128],"audience":[124],"covid-hub-category":[453],"health-canada":[],"class_list":["post-10214","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","category-reports","category-research","program-area-covid","program-area-mental-health-and-substance-use","audience-policy-research","covid-hub-category-policy-and-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v28.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Gender and Household Size - Mental Health Commission of Canada<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"COVID-19 continues to have a serious impact on mental health and substance use, with differences by gender and household size\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Gender and Household Size\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"COVID-19 continues to have a serious impact on mental health and substance use, with differences by gender and household size\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mental Health Commission of Canada\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/mental-health-commission-of-canada\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-26T20:49:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/COVID_19_Icon-dark_blue.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"340\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Gender and Household Size - Mental Health Commission of Canada\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/09\\\/COVID_19_Icon-dark_blue.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-21T16:25:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-26T20:49:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"COVID-19 continues to have a serious impact on mental health and substance use, with differences by gender and household size\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/09\\\/COVID_19_Icon-dark_blue.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/09\\\/COVID_19_Icon-dark_blue.png\",\"width\":480,\"height\":340,\"caption\":\"COVID icon\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Resources\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Gender and Household Size\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mental Health Commission of Canada\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Mental Health Commission of Canada\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/12\\\/mental-health-commission-canada-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/12\\\/mental-health-commission-canada-logo.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080,\"caption\":\"Mental Health Commission of Canada\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/mental-health-commission-of-canada\\\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Gender and Household Size - Mental Health Commission of Canada","description":"COVID-19 continues to have a serious impact on mental health and substance use, with differences by gender and household size","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Gender and Household Size","og_description":"COVID-19 continues to have a serious impact on mental health and substance use, with differences by gender and household size","og_url":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/","og_site_name":"Mental Health Commission of Canada","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/mental-health-commission-of-canada\/","article_modified_time":"2026-02-26T20:49:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":340,"url":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/COVID_19_Icon-dark_blue.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/","url":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/","name":"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Gender and Household Size - Mental Health Commission of Canada","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/COVID_19_Icon-dark_blue.png","datePublished":"2021-05-21T16:25:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-26T20:49:53+00:00","description":"COVID-19 continues to have a serious impact on mental health and substance use, with differences by gender and household size","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/COVID_19_Icon-dark_blue.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/COVID_19_Icon-dark_blue.png","width":480,"height":340,"caption":"COVID icon"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Resources","item":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Gender and Household Size"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/","name":"Mental Health Commission of Canada","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/#organization","name":"Mental Health Commission of Canada","url":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/mental-health-commission-canada-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/mental-health-commission-canada-logo.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080,"caption":"Mental Health Commission of Canada"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/mental-health-commission-of-canada\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/10214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/resource"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/10214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96844,"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource\/10214\/revisions\/96844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10214"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=10214"},{"taxonomy":"program-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program-area?post=10214"},{"taxonomy":"audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/audience?post=10214"},{"taxonomy":"covid-hub-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/covid-hub-category?post=10214"},{"taxonomy":"health-canada","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/health-canada?post=10214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}