Associations between Paid Paternity Leave and Parental Mental Health Across the Transition to Parenthood: Evidence from a Repeated-Measure Study of First-Time Parents in California

Abstract

Paid family leave may mitigate stress and health challenges across the transition to parenthood. The current study examined whether paid paternity leave is associated with first-time parents' trajectories of depression, stress, and sleep from the prenatal to postpartum periods. Expectant parents (72 couples) reported on their depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and daytime fatigue during mid-to-late pregnancy and then again at six months postpartum. At one year postpartum, fathers reported on any paid or unpaid leave taken following their child's birth. We used a repeated-measures design to compare couples in which the father either did or did not access paid paternity leave. When fathers took paid paternity leave, their partners' stress and depressive symptoms showed smaller prenatal to postpartum increases than mothers whose partners did not take paid leave. Similarly, fathers who took paid paternity leave, compared to those who did not, reported smaller prenatal to postpartum increases in stress and daytime fatigue. These results remained largely unchanged when controlling for the length of fathers' leave. The study's longitudinal, within-subject design allows us to examine parents' mental health relative to their own prenatal baseline, helping to account for some of the pre-existing differences between fathers who did and did not take paid paternity leave. The results suggest that paid paternity leave may be associated with greater well-being across the transition to parenthood for both fathers and mothers.

Paternal Leave Entitlement and Workplace Culture: A Key Challenge to Paternal Mental Health

“…The pandemic experience was different depending on whether the father could work from home, was furloughed, or went back to work. The study demonstrates that with current leave entitlement, sociocultural and occupational perceptions discourage fathers from taking on contemporary fathering roles, which has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on fathers’ and partners’ mental health and bonding with the baby [ 45 , 46 ].…”

“…Extended parental leave has been found to further decrease stress and anxiety in fathers [ 43 , 44 ]. Research demonstrates that when fathers take leave, their availability and support improve the mental health of their partners [ 45 ] and benefits the child by encouraging father–child bonding after birth and enabling commitments to fathers’ engagement [ 46 ].…”

Parental self-regulation and engagement in emotion socialization: A systematic review.

“…Finally, we also need to bring attention to processes at broader ecological levels that may be shaping ERSBs (Figure 2). Policies that address systemic problems (e.g., racism, poverty, family leave, violence; Brown et al, 2019; Cardenas et al, 2021) likely will have downstream effects on parenting and youth functioning. Therefore, research on and translational efforts to target systemic correlates of family functioning are urgently needed alongside programs that target parental factors and parenting behaviors directly.…”

Prospective Associations Between Fathers’ Engagement in Infant Caregiving and Their Weight-Related Behaviors and Mental Health

“…Our study’s null findings also suggest that there may be other more important factors other than caregiving to trigger changes in fathers’ weight-related behaviors and mental health entering fatherhood. For example, access to parental leave and flexible work arrangements are consistently identified to be critical for fathers to enhance work–family balance ( Ewald et al, 2020 ), and failure to do so might contribute to poor sleep ( Buxton et al, 2016 ; Cardenas et al, 2021 ), unhealthy eating ( Bauer et al, 2012 ), and poor mental health ( Allen et al, 2000 ; Cardenas et al, 2021 ). At the personal level, social cognitive factors such as self-regulation and motivation are identified to be important factors in regulating weight-related behaviors in prior studies ( Greaves et al, 2017 ).…”