Paid Family Leave May Reduce Psychological Distress of New Parents

Paid family leave policies enacted by states for new parents appear to improve mental health and decrease psychological distress of new parents, according to areport in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.“This evidence comes at a critical time of ongoing policy debates at the state and federal levels in the U.S. when public and policymaker support for a national [paid family leave] policy is growing,” wrote Rita Hamad, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues.In the United States, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave to eligible workers, the authors wrote. In recent years, nine states (including California and New Jersey) and Washington, D.C., have enacted paid family leave policies that provide salary support for new parents while they are on leave. (APA provides eligible employees up to 12 weeks of paid leave from work after the birth or adoption or foster care placement of a child.)To examine the effects of the paid family leave policies on parent and child mental health, Hamad and colleagues analyzed data collected between 1997 and 2016 as part of the annual National Health Interview Survey. The authors compared changes in parental psychological distress (as determined by theKessler 6 score) and child behavioral problems (as determined by the Mental Health Indicator score) among families in California and New Jersey before and after implementation of paid family leave policies.Exposure t...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: American Journal of Preventive Medicine California Kessler 6 score Mental Health Indicator score New Jersey paid family leave psychological distress Source Type: research