Practice EOC Part A: Analyzing "The Urgent Necessity for Paid Parental Leave" by Zara Abrams

Despite widespread public support and strong evidence of its mental and physical health benefits, the United States remains one of just six countries worldwide that do not offer paid parental leave. “We have this whole abundance of child development research about the importance of early attachment, but our policies aren’t lining up with that,” said Darby Saxbe, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Southern California who studies family environments and transitions....

Without [paid family leave], workers are guaranteed only unpaid leave—up to 12 weeks without losing their jobs—through the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), passed in 1993. But many people can’t afford to take unpaid leave, and about 44% of U.S. workers don’t even qualify for benefits through FMLA, which excludes smaller employers and many parttime workers (Employee and Worksite Perspectives of the Family and Medical Leave Act, Abt Associates, 2020)....

Plenty of research shows that mothers fare better when they have paid time off after giving birth, including a 51% decrease in the risk of rehospitalization (Jou, J., et al., Maternal and Child Health Journal, Vol. 22, 2018)....

Parental leave policies are also linked with better mental health. Women who aren’t able to take as much time off—especially those who return to work in under 2 months—face more depressive symptoms and more marital and self-esteem problems (Bullinger, L. R., Journal of Health Economics, Vol. 66, 2019; Feldman, R., et al., Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Vol. 25, No. 4, 2004)....

Research suggests that underprivileged families may benefit most from parental leave policies, starting with better birth outcomes, including fewer early term births, possibly owing to decreased stress during pregnancy (Stearns, J., Journal of Health Economics, Vol. 43, 2015). But these families are often ineligible for such benefits because of the limits of the FMLA and inconsistency in state and employer policies. People who get paid leave are much more likely to be affluent, well educated, and White. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicate that about 47% of White parents, 41% of Black parents, and just 23% of Hispanic parents have access to paid leave (“Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Access To and Use of Paid Family and Medical Leave,” Monthly Labor Review, 2019)....

Increasingly, psychologists are studying how offering leave to fathers can benefit the whole family. [Studies of the] “fathering brain” provide insight into how parental instincts develop and why family leave is a crucial part of that process....

“We develop responses to our babies because we’re in charge of them, not because moms are perfectly designed to be the primary caregiver,” Saxbe said. [An Israeli study of] both same-sex and heterosexual parents [found] that “primary caregiver” gay fathers displayed amygdala activation similar to the mothers in the study, whereas “secondary caregiver” gay fathers had brain activity that more closely resembled heterosexual fathers....

In a randomized, controlled trial of first-time fathers, those who carried their babies in a soft carrier attached to their bodies showed more amygdala activity when they heard babies crying than those who used a [car seat] carrier (Riem, M. M. E., et al., Psychoneuroendocrinology, Vol. 132, 2021). “This strongly suggests that it does not matter who you are, but it does matter what you do,” said Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, PhD, a professor of neurobiological and environmental determinants of parenting and child development at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a principal investigator of the study....

When men take leave, their partners also benefit. Following a Swedish policy reform that increased fathers’ ability to stay home, mothers had fewer physical health complications and were less likely to take prescription medications for anxiety (Persson, P., & Rossin- Slater, M., NBER Working Paper No. 25902, 2019)....

But paid leave is even harder for fathers to obtain, which particularly harms same-sex male couples...(Wong, E., et al., Journal of Social Policy, Vol. 49, No. 3, 2020)....

Paid leave is associated with lower infant mortality rates and higher rates of vaccination, especially for families below the poverty line (Khan, M. S., Child and Youth Services Review, Vol. 116, 2020; Choudhury, A. R., & Polachek, S. W., Vaccine, Vol. 39, No. 21, 2021). Women with access to more paid leave also breastfeed more, which can boost a child’s immunity and development (Paid Family Leave: A Crucial Support for Breastfeeding, CLASP). Improvements in child physical health carry through at least until elementary school...(Lichtman-Sadot, S., & Bell, N. P., Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 36, No. 4, 2017)....

Paid maternal leave is also associated with a distinct profile of brain activity in infants that may indicate more mature early cognitive functioning. Natalie H. Brito, PhD, an assistant professor of applied psychology at New York University, and her colleagues found that patterns of infant electroencephalogram (EEG) activity were different across paid and unpaid leave groups, even when controlling for income, education, occupation, perceived stress, and other factors....

“Paid leave was most likely to predict this pattern of infant brain function over and above everything else,” Brito said....Brito’s research also shows that parents’ paid leave is associated with better language skills in toddlers and fewer infant behavioral problems for mothers with less education (Kozak, K., et al., Infancy, Vol. 26, No. 4, 2021). Further studies suggest that longer maternal leaves are linked to fewer cognitive and behavioral problems, even when controlling for factors like the quality of child care and the home environment (Berger, L. M., et al., The Economic Journal, Vol. 115, No. 501, 2005; Brooks-Gunn, J., et al., Child Development, Vol. 73, No. 4, 2002). “It’s the resources and the time that families have after childbirth—during one of the most important periods of brain development—that really matter,” Brito said.

Copyright © 2022 by American Psychological Association. Reproduced with permission.