June 22, 2026
RDNE Stock project/Pexels.com
Paid paternity leave may help boost the mental health of new fathers, new research from Northwestern University suggests.
Paid paternity leave may help improve the mental health of new fathers, a new study from Northwestern University found.
New fathers who took unpaid leave from their jobs were 58% more likely to experience anxiety symptoms than those who took paid leave, the study of 4,290 fathers found. Those who did not take off work at all were more likely to experience anxiety and depression symptoms.
The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that 6.6% of new fathers had depression and 11% had anxiety. More than half of them — 54% — took paid leave, 22% took unpaid leave and 15% did not take leave. The others took a mix of unpaid and paid leave.
Fathers that wanted to take leave but weren't able to do so were more likely to experience adverse mental health symptoms, the researchers found. Men who experienced symptoms most commonly cited financial barriers as an obstacle to taking leave.
"Bottom line, mental health and paternity leave are linked," Dr. Craig Garfield, a corresponding author of the study and a pediatrician at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, said in a statement. "Our findings underscore that paternal leave is not just a workplace benefit, it's a public issue that can deeply impact families and children."
Public and workplace policies often lag behind in offering parental support for new fathers, whose experiences with the emotional and psychological stresses of parenthood often go underreported, the researchers said.
A 2010 study found that 1 in 10 new fathers experience a form of postpartum depression after the birth of their children. But, academics say the figure may be higher, because men express mental health symptoms differently than women.
"Oftentimes, dads aren't aware that they're at risk for it, don't feel justified to even complain," Sheehan Fisher, a Northwestern medicine psychologist said in a Northwestern publication. "They might feel obligated to pretend that they're happy and everything's okay. They may not realize that they're not alone in that experience."
Expanding and addressing financial barriers to parental leave policies can lead to improved mental health for fathers, stronger bonding between them and their children, and greater family stability as a whole, Garfield said. It's a "valuable tool" to support young families in the U.S., he added.
"Mothers and children are certainly important," Garfield said. "But to ensure the best outcomes for our children and families, we need to think about families holistically and how they function in today's society."
