Selection into maternity leave length and long-run maternal health in Germany

IF 1.9 3区社会学 Q3 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Journal of Social Policy Pub Date : 2023-09-12 DOI:10.1017/s0047279423000429

Lara Bister, Peter Eibich, Roberta Rutigliano, Mine Kühn, Karen van Hedel

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract Existing literature shows the importance of maternity leave as a strategy for women to balance work and family responsibilities. However, only a few studies focused on the long-run impact of maternity leave length on maternal health. Therefore, how exactly they are related remains unclear. We examine women’s selection into different lengths of maternity leave as a potential explanation for the inconclusive findings in the literature on the association between maternity leave and maternal health. This study aims to unravel the association between maternity leave length and mothers’ long-term health in Germany. Drawing on detailed data from the German Statutory Pension Fund (DRV), we estimated the association between maternity leave length and sick leave from 3 years following their child’s birth for 4,243 women living in Germany in 2015 by applying discrete-time logistic regression. Our results show a negative relationship between maternity-leave length and long-term maternal health, likely driven by negative health selection. Long maternity leaves of more than 24 months were associated with worse maternal health in the long run, while a positive association emerged for vulnerable women with pre-existing health problems.

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在德国，选择产假长度和长期产妇健康

现有文献表明，产假作为女性平衡工作和家庭责任的一种策略具有重要意义。然而，只有少数研究侧重于产假长度对产妇健康的长期影响。因此，它们究竟是如何相关的仍不清楚。我们研究了妇女选择不同长度的产假作为一个潜在的解释，在文献中不确定的发现产假和产妇健康之间的关系。本研究旨在揭示德国产假长短与母亲长期健康之间的关系。根据德国法定养老基金(DRV)的详细数据，我们应用离散时间逻辑回归，估计了2015年4243名居住在德国的女性在孩子出生后3年的产假长度和病假之间的关系。我们的研究结果表明，产假长度与长期产妇健康之间存在负相关关系，可能是由负面健康选择驱动的。从长远来看，超过24个月的长产假与产妇健康状况较差有关，而对于已有健康问题的弱势妇女则出现了积极的联系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Social Policy Multiple-

CiteScore

4.40

自引率

20.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Social Policy carries high quality articles on all aspects of social policy in an international context. It places particular emphasis upon articles which seek to contribute to debates on the future direction of social policy, to present new empirical data, to advance theories, or to analyse issues in the making and implementation of social policies. The Journal of Social Policy is part of the "Social Policy Package", which also includes Social Policy and Society and the Social Policy Digest. An online resource, the Social Policy Digest, was launched in 2003. The Digest provides a regularly up-dated, fully searchable, summary of policy developments and research findings across the whole range of social policy.