Paternity leave in Sweden: costs, savings and health gains

The effect of California's paid family leave policy on parent health: A quasi-experimental study

The U.S. is the only high-income country without a national paid family leave (PFL) policy. While a handful of U.S. states have implemented PFL policies in recent years, there are few studies that examine the effects of these policies on health. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that California's PFL policy-implemented in 2004-improved parent health outcomes. Data were drawn from the 1993-2017 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a large diverse national cohort study of U.S. families (N = 6,690). We used detailed longitudinal sociodemographic information about study participants and a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences analytic technique to examine the effects of California's PFL policy on families who were likely eligible for the paid leave, while accounting for underlying trends in these outcomes among states that did not implement PFL policies in this period. Outcomes included self-rated health, psychological distress, overweight and obesity, and alcohol use. We found improvements in self-rated health and psychological distress, as well as decreased likelihood of being overweight and reduced alcohol consumption. Improvements in health status and psychological distress were greater for mothers, and reductions in alcohol use were greater for fathers. Results were robust to alternative specifications. These findings suggest that California's PFL policy had positive impacts on several health outcomes, providing timely evidence to inform ongoing policy discussions at the federal and state levels. Future studies should examine the effects of more recently implemented state and local PFL policies to determine whether variation in policy implementation and generosity affects outcomes.

Longitudinal Study of Body Mass Index in Young Males and the Transition to Fatherhood

Despite a growing understanding that the social determinants of health have an impact on body mass index (BMI), the role of fatherhood on young men's BMI is understudied. This longitudinal study examines BMI in young men over time as they transition from adolescence into fatherhood in a nationally representative sample. Data from all four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health supported a 20-year longitudinal analysis of 10,253 men beginning in 1994. A "fatherhood-year" data set was created and changes in BMI were examined based on fatherhood status (nonfather, nonresident father, resident father), fatherhood years, and covariates. Though age is positively associated with BMI over all years for all men, comparing nonresident and resident fathers with nonfathers reveals different trajectories based on fatherhood status. Entrance into fatherhood is associated with an increase in BMI trajectory for both nonresident and resident fathers, while nonfathers exhibit a decrease over the same period. In this longitudinal, population-based study, fatherhood and residence status play a role in men's BMI. Designing obesity prevention interventions for young men that begin in adolescence and carry through young adulthood should target the distinctive needs of these populations, potentially improving their health outcomes.

Parental leave and increased physical activity of fathers and mothers--results from the Northern Swedish Cohort

BACKGROUND

Physical activity is an important public health issue. Factors shown to be associated with physical activity are parenthood and country-level gender equality, while the importance of individual gender equality (in parenthood or in general) remains to explore. In Scandinavia, where parental leave can be shared equally between mothers and fathers, parental leave is one dimension of gender equality in parenthood. The aim of this study was to investigate parental leave in relation to increased physical activity among men and women.

METHODS

Participants in the Northern Swedish Cohort with a child born 1993-2005 (n = 584) were investigated with questionnaires at ages 21 and 42; register data on parental leave between ages 28 and 42 were obtained from Statistics Sweden. The relationships between parental leave between ages 28 and 42 and meeting WHO guidelines for physical activity at age 42, as well as changes in physical activity between ages 21 and 42, were tested with multinomial regression, controlling for socio-economic status and birth year of the child.

RESULTS

For women, the length of parental leave was not associated with increased physical activity or with meeting WHO guidelines at age 42. For men, parental leave was associated with increased physical activity, controlling for socio-economic status and age of the child, but not with meeting WHO guidelines for physical activity at age 42.

CONCLUSIONS

A gender non-traditional out-take of parental leave might be associated with an increase in physical activity among men at the lower end of the physical activity spectrum, but not among women.

Heterosexual gender relations in and around childhood risk and safety

Injuries are a leading cause of child death, and safety interventions frequently target mothers. Fathers are largely ignored despite their increasing childcare involvement. In our qualitative study with 18 Canadian heterosexual couples parenting children 2 to 7 years old, we examined dyadic decision making and negotiations related to child safety and risk engagement in recreational activities. Parents viewed recreation as an important component of men's childcare, but women remained burdened with mundane tasks. Most couples perceived men as being more comfortable with risk than women, and three negotiation patterns emerged: fathers as risk experts; mothers countering fathers' risk; and fathers acknowledging mothers' safety concerns but persisting in risk activities. Our findings suggest that contemporary involved fathering practices privilege men in the outdoors and can erode women's control for protecting children from unintentional injury. We recommend promoting involved fathering that empowers both parents and developing injury-prevention strategies incorporating both fathers' and mothers' perspectives.

The missing links of the European gender mainstreaming approach: Assessing work–family reconciliation policies in the Italian Mezzogiorno

This article examines how the EU gender mainstreaming approach has addressed work and family reconciliation across Southern Italian regions, to foster a more egalitarian and socially inclusive development. Drawing upon a survey of women of different socioeconomic backgrounds and in-depth interviewing of regional policy-makers, this article assesses what gender equality policies do and don’t do for work–family reconciliation within the Italian Mezzogiorno. Findings show that while poor women may be stigmatized as inadequate mothers, middle-class women are pushed to join men in employment and civic sphere at the expense of caring. As both public and private caring supply is underdeveloped and unevenly guaranteed between protected and unprotected workers, women may be constrained to reduce their participation in the labour market. Traditional gendered family roles and power relations within the household may further discourage women to work, form and maintain a family.

The relationship between a less gender-stereotypical parenthood and alcohol-related care and death: a registry study of Swedish mothers and fathers

BACKGROUND

In general men tend to drink more alcohol and experience more alcohol-related sickness, injuries and mortality than women. In this paper, the overall hypothesis was that increased gender similarity in the division of parental duties would lead to convergence in alcohol-related harm. The aim was to analyse whether the risk of alcohol harm differs between parents who fit a gender-stereotypical versus those with a less gender-stereotypical division of childcare and paid work.

METHODS

The study sample was a retrospective registry-based cohort study of all Swedish couples who had their first child together in 1978 (N = 49,120). A less gender-stereotypical parenthood was indicated by paternity leave for fathers (1978-1979) and full-time work for mothers (1980). The outcome was inpatient care and/or death caused by alcohol psychosis, alcoholism, liver disease, or alcohol intoxication in the two decades following (1981-2001). Our main statistical method was multivariate logistic regression with odds ratios used to estimate relative risks.

RESULTS

The main results show that fathers who took paternity leave had 18% lower risk of alcohol-related care and/or death than other fathers. Mothers who worked full-time about two years after having a child had 71% higher risk than mothers who were unemployed or worked part-time.

CONCLUSION

A less gender-stereotypical division of duties between parents in early parenthood may contribute to a long-term decreased gender disparity regarding risky alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm. In order to know more about the causal direction however, future research has to consider subjects' drinking patterns in the years prior to parenthood.