Parental Leave for Adoptive and Birth Parents

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Natalie Lamb

Abstract or Description

Beginning October 2020, U.S. federal employees covered by FMLA gained the ability to take 12 weeks of un-paid parental leave. Despite progress made in providing paid parental leave to U.S. workers, other countries have more comprehensive policies (Livingston & Thomas, 2019). We examined beliefs about parental leave policies using an experimental approach. Prior research shows that gender and gender role expectations impact perceptions of parents who take parental leave (Coleman & Franiuk, 2011); we expected these factors to affect beliefs about adequate leave time for mothers versus fathers. Further, low access to and use of paid leave (Bartel et al., 2019) may lead Americans to have different beliefs about the legitimacy of leave for childbirth itself (mother recovery time) vs. bonding with the child. Hence, we expected Americans to believe birth (compared to adoptive) parents are more deserving of longer parental leave. Thus, we examined the length of parental leave men and women allocated to heterosexual partners who either gave birth or adopted a child. In a study conducted last year, we found that mothers, regardless of whether they gave birth or adopted a child, were allocated more leave time than fathers. Because of the importance of the application of parental leave in the United States and because we already saw a main effect with a college sample, we want to examine the effects with people within management roles who would be making these decisions in the real world. This work offers insights into Americans’ values of parental leave for adoptive and birth mothers and fathers and how these values align with U.S. policies.

Mentor

Monica Biernat, PhD