Humphreys Emily, O'Neill Stephen, Filippi Veronique, Courtin Emilie
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9SH, UK.
London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK.
SSM Popul Health. 2025 May 7;30:101811. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2025.101811. eCollection 2025 Jun.
Paternity leave has the potential to help parents by enabling new fathers to spend time with their families. However, existing evidence about its association with parental mental health and wellbeing is mixed. This study used data from Understanding Society, a national UK household survey, to examine uptake of paternity leave and its association with measures of mental health and wellbeing for fathers (n = 1385) and mothers (n = 1384) of infants born 2009-2019. We used logistic regression to explore paternity leave uptake and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) to estimate the association between paternity leave uptake and the mental wellbeing (Short Form-12 Mental Component Score (SF-12 MCS)) and mental health (General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) caseness) of fathers and mothers in the months after the birth of their child. Odds of taking paternity leave were higher for more educated fathers and those born in the UK. After adjusting for potential confounders, we found no strong evidence of association between paternity leave and mental wellbeing or mental health of mothers or fathers in our overall sample. This finding was robust to a range of sensitivity analyses including alternative model specifications, imputation of missing data, and weighting. However, subgroup analysis showed that fathers with above median household incomes had better mental wellbeing if they took paternity leave (1.43-point difference in SF-12 MCS; 95 % CI 0.25,2.62; p = 0.02). Improved policies are needed to ensure parental leave reduces inequalities in mental health and wellbeing.
陪产假有可能通过让新爸爸有时间陪伴家人来帮助父母。然而，关于它与父母心理健康和幸福之间关联的现有证据并不一致。本研究使用了来自英国全国性家庭调查“理解社会”的数据，以考察2009年至2019年出生婴儿的父亲（n = 1385）和母亲（n = 1384）的陪产假使用情况及其与心理健康和幸福指标之间的关联。我们使用逻辑回归来探讨陪产假的使用情况，并使用逆概率加权回归调整（IPWRA）来估计陪产假使用情况与孩子出生后几个月里父母心理健康（简短健康调查问卷 - 12精神健康成分得分（SF - 12 MCS））和精神状态（一般健康问卷 - 12（GHQ - 12）病例状态）之间的关联。受教育程度较高的父亲以及出生在英国的父亲休陪产假的几率更高。在对潜在混杂因素进行调整后，我们在总体样本中未发现陪产假与父母的心理健康或精神状态之间存在强关联的有力证据。这一发现对于一系列敏感性分析（包括替代模型设定、缺失数据插补和加权）而言是稳健的。然而，亚组分析表明，家庭收入中位数以上的父亲如果休陪产假，其心理健康状况会更好（SF - 12 MCS相差1.43分；95%置信区间0.25, 2.62；p = 0.02）。需要改进政策以确保育儿假减少心理健康和幸福方面的不平等。
