Association of paternal factors with mothers' employment postchildbirth

Abstract

<div xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="joh212419-sec-0001"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d3976143e350">Objectives</h5> <p id="d3976143e352">The demand on Japanese women to fulfill their dual roles as mothers and labor force participants leads to a subsequent reduction of their employment hours, switching of occupations, or quitting the labor force. This study aims to examine paternal factors associated with mothers' employment status 18 months after childbirth. </p> </div><div xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="joh212419-sec-0002"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d3976143e355">Methods</h5> <p id="d3976143e357">We used data from the 2010 cohort of the Longitudinal Survey of Newborns conducted in Japan. We restricted our analysis to 10 712 mothers who had full‐time employment 1 year before childbirth. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess paternal factors associated with mothers' employment after childbirth. </p> </div><div xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="joh212419-sec-0003"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d3976143e360">Results</h5> <p id="d3976143e362">One‐third of the mothers with full‐time employment before childbirth were not working full‐time 18 months after delivery. We found that high childcare involvement (score 13–18) of fathers (OR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.01–1.43) and fathers with part‐time employment (OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.12–2.26) were associated with higher odds of mothers' full‐time employment. Fathers' weekly work of ≥60 h (OR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.71–0.88) and higher annual income decreased the odds ratios by over 20%. </p> </div><div xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="joh212419-sec-0004"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d3976143e365">Conclusions</h5> <p id="d3976143e367">Fathers' work arrangements and involvement in childcare play a key role in helping mothers resume employment postchildbirth. </p> </div>