Access to employer-supported paternity leave and workers' self-rated mental health - United States, 2024.
Amel Omari, Eric W Lundstrom, Kristen W Van Buren and 2 others
PMID 42469595WHAT IT FOUND
A nationally representative U.S. survey found that workers without paternity leave access, or without employer support for it, reported worse mental health.
The association is observational and may reflect overall workplace quality rather than the leave policy itself.
Key findings
01In the full sample, workers with no paternity leave access were more likely to rate their mental health as fair or poor compared with those who had employer-supported access (adjusted odds ratio 1.73, 95% CI 1.18–2.54).
02Workers who had access to paternity leave but perceived their employer as not supportive of taking it had even higher odds of fair/poor mental health (adjusted odds ratio 2.24, 95% CI 1.16–4.31), suggesting perceived support matters beyond mere availability.
03About 40% of workers said they did not know their workplace's paternity leave policy, meaning the largest single group in the sample could not be classified by access or support.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
Cross-sectional design: the study cannot show that paternity leave access causes better mental health; workers at better-resourced employers may simply report both better mental health and more generous leave policies. Mental health was measured with a single self-rated question rather than a validated multi-item scale, so it captures a broad impression rather than specific symptoms. 40% of workers did not know their workplace's paternity leave policy, leaving the largest group unclassifiable and potentially introducing misclassification. The sample could not be restricted to workers who were recently, currently, or imminently eligible for paternity leave, so the association may reflect general employment quality rather than the leave policy itself. The survey did not distinguish paid from unpaid leave, nor did it capture work arrangement (standard employment, contracting, gig work). The authors note that better mental health could influence how workers perceive employer support, so the direction of the relationship is uncertain.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, or publication of the article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the adjusted odds ratios as evidence that paternity leave improves mental health. The study is cross-sectional, so workers with better mental health may simply work at better-resourced employers that happen to offer paternity leave. The authors themselves note the association may reflect overall employment quality and positive workplace culture rather than the leave policy, and the mental health outcome is a single global rating rather than a clinical diagnosis.