Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Work-Family Supports for Parents with Young Children: Implications for Children and Families

(Family and Child Policy)

Managing work and caregiving needs is a key challenge for employed parents with young children. Well-designed public- and employer-policies have the potential to promote child and family wellbeing by helping parents of young children maintain economic security while supporting parental wellbeing and quality parenting. This panel examines the implications of two such work-family supports—paid family leave (PFL) and workplace flexibility—for the wellbeing of children and families. Using varied data sources, methods, and theoretical perspectives, the four papers advance knowledge by examining the effects of PFL and workplace flexibility on a diverse set of child and family outcomes, including economic wellbeing, parenting, and child behavior. Additionally, each paper gives attention to the experiences of socio-economically disadvantaged families. Limited access to supports for balancing employment and caregiving responsibilities among socio-economically disadvantaged parents, along with an increasingly work-based social safety net, underline the need to implement and evaluate work-family reconciliation policies that serve this group. Together, the papers in this panel make important contributions to the research base on work-family policy. The first two papers focus on PFL and use quasi-experimental methods. Drawing on data from the American Community Survey and a triple differences design, the first paper estimates the effects of California’s PFL program on mothers’ risk of poverty and total household income following a birth. Results provide evidence that the program reduces the likelihood of economic insecurity in this time period, particularly among single and less-educated mothers. The second paper uses data from the U.K. General Household Survey and difference-in-difference methods to assess the impact of increases in the availability and generosity of U.K. maternity leave provisions on mothers’ employment outcomes. Results suggest this policy change, which extended benefits and improved availability for less-advantaged mothers, increased women’s employment but had little effect on earnings. The next two papers examine how workplace flexibility relates to parental and child wellbeing. Using nationally-representative U.S. data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, the third paper finds that workplace flexibility—including access to flexible schedules, working at home, and part-time employment—is associated with better relationship quality among couples and more frequent parent-child interactions. The fourth paper examines how mothers’ perceived workplace inflexibility relates to child behavior problems, using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Results suggest that higher levels of workplace inflexibility are associated with more behavior problems, particularly among single-mother families, and that improving workplace flexibility may benefit children’s socioemotional development. Together, these four papers consider a diverse set of child and family outcomes and show positive benefits of PFL and workplace flexibility, particularly among socio-economically disadvantaged families. Findings provide support for increasing access to PFL and flexibility in the workplace. Policy implications will be discussed in light of proposed federal legislation in the U.S. for PFL (the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act) and for increasing workers’ schedule control and flexibility (the Schedules That Work Act).