Maternity/Paternity Leave and The Impact on Child Development - Free Paper Sample

Introduction

Child development is a very critical process and task that can be influenced by several factors. In most cases, the factors entail the child's environment and the people they interact with. Determining the primary variables that dictate a child's development is crucial since they can result in either desirable or adverse long-term consequences, capable of causing both emotional and physical disturbance to the child in the future. Consequently, parents have a significant role to play in the development process, which begins immediately after birth (Petts & Knoester, 2018). However, the majority of the parents are engaged in work during the period that they start to sire children. In this research, both paternity and maternity leave are presented as equally essential for the development of a child. Ideally, parents act as the main source of security and safety for their newborns, delivering the necessary care for their proper growth and nourishment (Mirkovic et al., 2016). Moreover, parents are occasionally involved in multiple roles in child development, which are impossible to fulfill if they are at work and not at home. Thus, it is essential to comprehend the roles parents play in ensuring infants' and children's general health. This research paper will provide an overview of maternity and paternity leave and illustrate the impacts of both paternity and maternity leave on a child's development.

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An Overview

The idea of maternity and paternity leave can be backdated to more than 100 years ago, and currently implemented in more than 120 countries around the globe. Classically, the national policies advocate for a job-protected leave period of approximately 44 weeks in OECD countries (Castro-García & Pazos, 2016). It also provides for income replacement, making it possible for both fathers and mothers to obtain considerable time off work following a child's adoption or birth. In most cases, parental leaves are known as categorized as family policies that aim at protecting both the infant and maternal health; the leaves are also viewed as employment policies that champion gender equality and promote the critical rights of workers to integrate family responsibilities and work (Mirkovic et al., 2016).

Since maternity and paternity leave are perceived as an important ingredient in the early development of a child; numerous nations are adopting the current trend, which is dramatically characterized by extension of the leave duration available, the addition of flexible alternatives, and the promotion of paternal leave (Castro-García & Pazos, 2016). Several studies on parental leave have centered majorly on the application patterns and maternal and paternal leave on the economy for ages. However, recently significant interest has been drawn to the influence of the leave durations and policies on the parents' mental health and the development of the children.

In the United States of America and Canada, most women and men are often in active labor during the birth of their first child; nearly 60 percent of women who bear children below three years of age are employed (Mirkovic et al., 2016). As such, the increasing concerns on parental stress resulting from the difficulty of balancing family duties, work, and the well being of the children, particularly when in the initial years of their lives, have triggered further revision on how to benefit policies and parental leave can be improved (Mirkovic et al., 2016). The complementary programs, policies, and services will specifically ensure the well-being of both the child and the family, affordable quality care for children, and flexible workplace practices. These are critical contextual factors. Ideally, the factors play a central role in dictating whether parents are able to ensure proper non -parental arrangements or parental arrangements, which ultimately affects the child's experiences and development (Mirkovic et al., 2016).

It is essential to comprehend that child care policies vary sharply around the globe. Europe pioneered the current parental leave standards; the European Union implemented a 14 week paid maternity leave in as early as 1992. In several nations today, parents on leave are paid approximately 70 percent to 100 percent of the initial salary; the payable leave is, however, narrowed down to around 16 weeks (Petts & Knoester, 2018). The United States of America offers 12 unpaid weeks of leave to employees taking care of a newborn (Castro-García & Pazos, 2016). Numerous countries prefer offering parental benefits strictly to women with minimum employment duration before the delivery of a child.

However, in Denmark, unemployed women are still eligible for a parental leave extension. In Germany, leave related to childbirth is legally available to nearly every parent. The Nordic nations (Sweden, Norway, and Denmark) advocate for gender equality on parental leaves and extensively emphasize the need for the contribution of both men and women (Mirkovic et al., 2016). For example, in Sweden, working parents are allowed to acquire up to 18 months job secured parental leave, including the benefits to be shared between the parents and applicable to either part-time or full-time employment; hence, the parents are able to enjoy the autonomy on how to best care for their newborns (Castro-García & Pazos, 2016).

Improved Relationship

Unfortunately, the application of shared parental leave mostly leans towards the women while the men prefer work. Some research illustrates that fathers who took paternity leave witnessed an improved relationship with their children and better work-life balance. Furthermore, on another study, fathers who were given the privilege of acquiring paternity leave created an impressive bond with their children, leading to most children at the age of 16 years scoring realizing academic excellence (Mirkovic et al., 2016). Generally, paternity leave has been proven to be of the same importance as the maternity leave. Although fathers are perceived as breadwinners, they have other essential roles to play, particularly in ensuring a child's proper development right from birth. Classically, the efficient and effective interaction of fathers and their offspring is highly beneficial to the children and their fathers. Consequently, family dynamics are enhanced while unnecessary dysfunctions and conflicts are avoided as the children tend to mature quickly.

Several factors are limiting the understanding of parental leave; thus, they significantly contribute to the poor development of young children and parent to child interactions. For instance, there are relatively low studies addressing the concerns on how parental leave is a critical aspect of early childhood development and bond formation between a child and a parent (Castro-García & Pazos, 2016). The outcome of the few research pieces is occasionally universal outside the united states of America or inconsistent. Before 1993, the United States of America did not have a paternal or maternal leave policy; instead, most new mothers were privileged to financial assistance promptly after which was in accordance with the temporary disability coverage. The enactment of the 1993 Family and Medical leave policy directed employers having more than 50 or 50 employees to allow for 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave to those workers who had at least 1250 work hours during the previous year; the provision advocated for multiple privileges (Petts & Knoester, 2018). Despite care promotion for the newly adopted kids or newborns, it allowed for time off to attend to sick employee’s children.

Also, close scrutiny of the studies illustrates that less than half of the private sector employees are covered or eligible for parental leaves. In a survey conducted in 200 among those workers who took leave, a significant one third failed to receive any payment during the longest duration of leave (Castro-García & Pazos, 2016). Half of the employees raised concerns about not having adequate money to meet their family demands; more than half of the workers iterated that longer leaves could only be an option if they included extra pay.

Sample biasness is another factor hindering the understanding of parental leave. Many present studies have tried to show whether early maternal employment had any impact on a child’s preparation for school, behavior change, and academic achievements (Mirkovic et al., 2016). Due to sample biasness, the results are mostly arrived at after considering inadequate intervening variables between infancy and advanced life stages. The situation is even made worse since the data used originate from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The organization lacks efficient information on the continuity and quality of child care arrangements. As such, the capacity to make valid interpretations and conclusion of results are dramatically limited.

Undoubtedly, ignorance from the employers has narrowed the scope of importance of paternal and maternal leave to the employees, irrespective of the various studies illustrating how essential both maternal and paternal leave are to the early development of a child (Petts & Knoester, 2018). Primarily, the employers worry more about their businesses failing to meet its objectives with the absence of employees in case of leave. Similarly, the workers tend not to prefer taking leaves on the grounds that they may not be paid. In research facilitated by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, it was confirmed that stimulating and responsive parenting immensely dictated the nature of a child's development. However, the research acknowledged how difficult it was for parents to strike a balance between their work and the responsibilities associated with parenthood (Petts & Knoester, 2018).

Conclusion

It is undisputed that infants need the attention of their parents for meaningful growth and development. Naturally, newborns can not take care of themselves, and therefore adults must claim the responsibilities. However, suppose parents take paternity and maternity leave strictly to look after the newborns. In that case, it is irrelevant since that can be done with other people, such as caretakers or relatives (Castro-García & Pazos, 2016). Ideally, maternity and paternity leave have the capacity to impact various aspects of child development dramatically. For instance, a child's psychological maturity is dictated by how adequate he or she interacted with both the parents right from birth. Various research has elaborated that children brought up by both parents around, consistently interacting with them, displayed less or no mental health conditions like depression in their entire formative years.