London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Becoming a parent is a major life event. It brings new responsibilities, demanding time, money and emotional resources, all coinciding with loss of sleep and with biological changes. Depression is common in new parents, affecting around a sixth of mothers and a tenth of fathers – and this matters for both of them and their babies.

Paternity leave might help. It gives fathers or partners a chance to spend some time with their families shortly after a birth without needing to leave their job. It could allow them to better support a partner recovering from childbirth; to establish new routines; and to care for their child.

But our new research has found that for many fathers taking paternity leave in the UK between 2009 and 2019, there was no link to better mental health or mental wellbeing. In our sample only higher-income fathers seemed to have better mental wellbeing if they’d taken paternity leave. We also found that take-up of paternity leave was unequal. Even after adjusting for other factors, fathers who were less educated and fathers who were born outside the UK were less likely to use it. A partner’s paternity leave wasn’t associated with either mental health or wellbeing for mothers.

Our study was not designed to find out why many people didn’t have better mental health and wellbeing after paternity leave, but one possibility is that paternity leave is not generous enough. We know that mothers need paid maternity or parental leave of at least two to three months for mental health benefits to be really clear. If the same is true for paternity leave, this could help explain our findings.

What we do already know is that paternity leave rights in the UK are very limited compared to other parts of Europe and many OECD countries. Most UK fathers or partners are entitled to two weeks of paternity leave paid at a maximum of around £187 per week. Unless their employer offers more generous terms, the rules mean that families using paternity leave will see a reduction in their income at a time when they have a lot of costs to meet – and we know from other research that reductions in income can affect mental health. Mothers can transfer some maternity leave to fathers, but few do.

Other countries have very different arrangements. Almost all of those included in a recent international review offered a better pay rate for paternity leave than the UK. In Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Greece, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain, paternity leave is longer as well as better paid. Beyond paternity leave, EU countries also offer at least four months of parental leave to each parent, with two months being non-transferable. Some are even more generous. For example, in Sweden, each parent is individually entitled to up to 90 days of non-transferable leave, and parents share a total of 480 days of paid parental leave paid at up to 80% of their salary.

National policies for paternity leave are important. They set entitlements that go to everyone, not just those who are lucky enough to work for a more generous employer. They might also help to change social norms, making it easier for more fathers to take leave and to play a greater role in childcare.

Our study only looked at mental health and wellbeing. But others have suggested that paternity leave could have a much wider range of benefits by increasing gender equality at home and work; supporting child development; and improving family health.

Legislation is already making its way through Westminster which gives basic entitlements to paternity leave to all employed fathers. This will give new rights to tens of thousands of people per year. But it won’t increase statutory paternity pay, and it won’t do much to incentivise dads to take longer leave.

The government has said that it will soon carry out a wider review of the parental leave system. When it does, our findings suggest that it should try to narrow inequalities in both uptake and outcomes.