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

Lara Bister; Peter Eibich; Roberta Rutigliano; Mine Kühn; Karen Van Hedel

doi:10.1017/S0047279423000429

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

Lara Bister^*, Peter Eibich, Roberta Rutigliano, Mine Kühn, Karen Van Hedel

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	528-547
Number of pages	20
Journal	Journal of Social Policy
Volume	54
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279423000429
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Funding

This paper originated from a master thesis of the first author in the M.Sc. Population Studies, University of Groningen (2018-2019). The research was conducted during a research internship at the research group Labor Demography, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (2019). The first author thanks the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research for hosting and the Erasmus+ traineeship programme of the European Union for funding the internship.

Funders	Funder number
Max Planck Institute For Demographic Research
Erasmus+ traineeship programme of the European Union

Keywords

maternal health
maternity leave

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1017/S0047279423000429Licence: CC BY

selection-into-maternity-leave-length-and-long-run-maternal-health-in-germanyFinal published version, 1.24 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Selection into maternity leave length and long-run maternal health in Germany",

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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AU - Bister, Lara

AU - Eibich, Peter

AU - Rutigliano, Roberta

AU - Kühn, Mine

AU - Van Hedel, Karen

PY - 2025/4/1

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N2 - 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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Selection into maternity leave length and long-run maternal health in Germany

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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