Mental Load and Family Well-Being: Evidence from Rural Egypt

Last registered on October 07, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Mental Load and Family Well-Being: Evidence from Rural Egypt
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0019748
Initial registration date
October 05, 2026

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 07, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Giulia Buccione
Affiliation
CEMFI
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Suzanna Khalifa
PI Affiliation
SciencesPo
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-09-18
End date
2026-12-31
Keywords
Gender, Health, Labor, Welfare
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
I15, I31, Q25
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Home production requires both time and cognitive effort: anticipating household needs, planning tasks, and coordinating with others. This "mental load" falls disproportionately on women, but its economic consequences are hard to measure because it usually comes bundled with the time the task itself takes. Such toll from home production is higher in rural settings, where women have less capacity to outsource it. This study asks whether women in rural households carry a mental load from home production, and what happens when that load is lifted. We focus on drinking water collection. Beyond the time it takes, the task requires monitoring the household's supply, planning trips, and coordinating with family members. We conduct a randomized controlled trial in rural Egypt in which households are assigned to one of three ways of getting safe filtered water: (1) collection from a local Water Treatment Unit, (2) home delivery that households must schedule in advance, and (3) home delivery with no scheduling requirement. The design separates mental load from time use. Both delivery arms remove collection time but differ in how much planning and coordination they require, so comparing them isolates the effect of mental load. Comparing collection with delivery captures the combined effect of lower time and cognitive burdens. We estimate effects on women's mental load, household tension, labor force participation, and productivity, and we also assess how improved access to safe drinking water affects household health.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Buccione, Giulia and Suzanna Khalifa. 2026. "Mental Load and Family Well-Being: Evidence from Rural Egypt." AEA RCT Registry. October 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19748-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention varies how households obtain safe filtered drinking water from local Water Treatment Units (WTUs) in rural Egypt. Households in the study are randomly assigned to one of three arms. The arms are designed so that the water provided (quality and quantity) is identical across arms, and only the way households obtain it differs.

Control: Collection at the WTU. Women obtain filtered water for free by traveling to the WTU and bringing it home, as is common in the study area. This arm requires both the time to collect water and the planning and coordination needed to monitor supply and organize trips.

Treatment 1: Scheduled home delivery. Filtered water is delivered to the household's door. To receive a delivery, the woman must request it in advance by phone call, specifying the date and time. This arm removes collection time but still requires women to monitor their water supply, anticipate needs, and coordinate with the provider.

Treatment 2: Home delivery without scheduling. Filtered water is delivered to the household's door on demand. The woman does not need to call in advance and can request a delivery just a few minutes beforehand. This arm removes both collection time and most of the planning and coordination associated with obtaining water.

The intervention lasts 6 weeks. Water is provided free of charge.

Intervention Start Date
2026-10-01
Intervention End Date
2026-11-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Women’s mental load, time use, household health, IPV
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Women labor force participation, mental health, service uptake, children education
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We conduct a randomized controlled trial in 7 villages in Asyut, rural Egypt. The sample consists of 1091 households that obtain drinking water from local Water Treatment Units (WTUs). In each household, the primary respondent is the woman mainly responsible for obtaining water. Households are randomly assigned, at the household level and stratified by village, to one of three arms described in the Intervention section: collection at the WTU (C), scheduled home delivery (T1), and on-demand home delivery (T2). The design separates the time and cognitive components of water collection. Comparing collection with the delivery arms captures the combined effect of reducing both (T1+T2 vs. C). Comparing scheduled with on-demand delivery, which require similar time but differ in the need for advance planning, isolates the effect of mental load (T1 vs. T2). We conduct a baseline survey before the intervention, two midlines (week 2 and 4) and one endline. We consider as eligible only respondents under the age of 55 with children.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization on the spot within the baseline survey
Randomization Unit
Household level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
Sample size: planned number of observations
N=1091 households
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Approx. 363 households per arm: collection at the WTU (C) = 365, scheduled home delivery (T1) = 363, on-demand home delivery (T2) = 353.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Power calculations assume individual-level randomization, a two-sided test at the 5% level, and 80% power. With 363 households per arm, the minimum detectable effect size (MDES) is 0.18 SD for the pooled delivery vs. collection comparison (T1+T2 vs. C) and 0.21 SD for scheduled vs. on-demand delivery (T1 vs. T2), without covariates. Controlling for baseline outcomes (assuming R² = 0.3) reduces the MDES to 0.15 SD and 0.18 SD, respectively. For outcomes measured at both midlines and the endline, pooling survey rounds (assuming an autocorrelation of 0.5) further reduces the MDES to about 0.12 SD and 0.14 SD. Accounting for 10% attrition increases the MDES by about 5%. Stratification by village is expected to improve precision further, so these estimates are conservative.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
American University in Cairo
IRB Approval Date
2025-07-28
IRB Approval Number
2024-2025-138
Analysis Plan