Paternity Leave and Fathers' Involvement with Their Young Children

Lenna Nepomnyaschy, Columbia University
Jane Waldfogel, Columbia University

Unlike many European countries, the United States has no national paternity leave policy giving fathers the right to take paid time off work following the birth (or adoption) of a child. Despite this, prior research suggests that many fathers do take some time off work after a child is born. However, little is known about the determinants, circumstances, or consequences of paternal leave-taking. In this paper, we use the first two waves of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), a new nationally representative panel study of over 10,000 children born in 2001, to examine these questions. In preliminary work, we find that the overwhelming majority of fathers take some leave at the birth of their child, but that the length of leave varies a good deal. Our results also indicate that fathers who take longer leaves are more involved in child care-taking activities nine months later.