Policy as normative influence? On the relationship between parental leave policy and social norms in gender division of childcare across 48 countries

Schindler S 1 , Schuster C 2 , Olsson MIT 3 , Froehlich L 4 , Hübner AK 2 , Block K 5 Show all authors , Van Laar C 6 , Schmader T 7 , Meeussen L 6 , van Grootel S 6 , Croft A 8 , Sun MS 9 , Ainsaar M 10 , Aarntzen L 11 , Adamus M 12 , Anderson J 13 , Atkinson C 8 , Avicenna M 14 , Bąbel P 15 , Barth M 16 , Benson-Greenwald T 17 , Maloku E 18 , Berent J 19 , Bergsieker HB 20 , Biernat M 21 , Birneanu A 22 , Bodinaku B 23 , Bosak J 24 , Bosson J 25 , Branković M 26 , Burkauskas J 27 , Čavojová V 12 , Cheryan S 28 , Choi E 29 , Choi I 30 , Contreras-Ibáñez CC 31 , Coogan A 32 , Danyliuk I 33 , Dar-Nimrod I 34 , Dasgupta N 35 , de Lemus S 36 , Devos T 37 , Diab M 38 , Diekman AB 17 , Efremova M 39 , Eisner L 40 , Eller A 41 , Erentaite R 42 , Fedáková D 12 , Franc R 43 , Gartzia L 44 , Gavreliuc A 22 , Gavreliuc D 22 , Gecaite-Stonciene J 27 , Germano AL 45 , Giovannelli I 46 , Gismondi Diaz R 47 , Gitikhmayeva L 48 , Gizaw AM 49 , Gjoneska B 50 , González OM 41 , González R 51 , Grijalva ID 52 , Güngör D 6 , Gustafsson Sendén M 53 , Hall W 54 , Harb C 55 , Hassan B 56 , Hässler T 40 , Hawi DR 57 , Henningsen L 58 , Hoppe A 59 , Ishii K 60 , Jakšić I 61 , Jasini A 6 , Jurkevičienė J 42 , Kelmendi K 62 , Kirby TA 63 , Kitakaji Y 64 , Kosakowska-Berezecka N 65 , Kozytska I 33 , Kulich C 19 , Kundtová-Klocová E 66 , Kunuroglu F 67 , Aidy CL 68 , Lee A 69 , Lindqvist A 70 , López-López W 71 , Luzvinda L 14 , Maricchiolo F 72 , Martinot D 73 , McNamara RA 74 , Meister A 75 , Melka TL 49 , Mickuviene N 27 , Miranda-Orrego MI 52 , Mkamwa T 76 , Morandini J 34 , Morton T 77 , Mrisho D 76 , Nikitin J 78 , Otten S 79 , Pacilli MG 80 , Page-Gould E 9 , Perandrés-Gómez A 36 , Pizarro J 44 , Pop-Jordanova N 50 , Pyrkosz-Pacyna J 81 , Quta S 82 , Ramis T 83 , Rani N 84 , Redersdorff S 73 , Régner I 85 , Renström EA 86 , Rivera-Rodriguez A 35 , Esmeralda RT 41 , Ryabichenko T 39 , Saab R 55 , Sakata K 64 , Samekin A 87 , Sánchez-Pacheco T 88 , Scheifele C 5 , Schulmeyer MK 47 , Sczesny S 89 , Sirlopú D 90 , Smith-Castro V 91 , Soo K 10 , Spaccatini F 80 , Steele JR 68 , Steffens MC 92 , Sucic I 43 , Vandello J 25 , Velásquez-Díaz LM 71 , Vink M 11 , Vives E 85 , Warkineh TZ 49 , Žeželj I 61 , Zhang X 93 , Zhao X 94 , Koc Y 79 , Kocak ÖE 95 , Martiny SE 96

Affiliations 

  • 1 Federal University of Applied Adminstrative Sciences, Berlin, Germany
  • 2 Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany
  • 3 Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Lillehammer, Norway
  • 4 FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany
  • 5 University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • 6 University of Leuven, Belgium
  • 7 The University of British Columbia, Canada
  • 8 University of Arizona, USA
  • 9 University of Toronto, Canada
  • 10 University of Tartu, Estonia
  • 11 Utrecht University, The Netherlands
  • 12 Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • 13 Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia
  • 14 State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatuillah Jakarta, Indonesia
  • 15 Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
  • 16 Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, Germany
  • 17 Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
  • 18 Rochester Institute of Technology in Kosovo (RIT), Kosovo
  • 19 University of Geneva, Switzerland
  • 20 University of Waterloo, Canada
  • 21 University of Kansas, USA
  • 22 West University of Timisoara, Romania
  • 23 University of Tirana, Albania
  • 24 Dublin City University, Ireland
  • 25 University of South Florida, USA
  • 26 Singidunum University, Serbia
  • 27 Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Palanga, Lithuania
  • 28 University of Washington, USA
  • 29 Korea University, South Korea
  • 30 Seoul National University, South Korea
  • 31 UAM - Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico
  • 32 Maynooth University (National University of Ireland), Ireland
  • 33 Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine
  • 34 The University of Sydney, Australia
  • 35 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
  • 36 Universidad de Granada, Spain
  • 37 San Diego State University, USA
  • 38 Stellenbosch University, South Africa, Stellenbosch, Palestine
  • 39 National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University), Moscow, Russia
  • 40 University of Zurich, Switzerland
  • 41 UNAM - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
  • 42 Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania
  • 43 Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Croatia
  • 44 Deusto Business School, Bilbao, Spain
  • 45 Yale University, USA
  • 46 University 'G. D'Annunzio' of Chieti-Pescara, Italy
  • 47 Universidad Privada de Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
  • 48 L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Kazakhstan
  • 49 Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia
  • 50 Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, North Macedonia
  • 51 Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
  • 52 Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Ecuador
  • 53 Stockholm University, Sweden
  • 54 Brock University, Canada
  • 55 American University of Beirut, Lebanon
  • 56 International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan
  • 57 Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar
  • 58 University of Exeter, UK
  • 59 University of Leipzig, Germany
  • 60 Nagoya University, Japan
  • 61 University of Belgrade, Serbia
  • 62 University of Prishtina, Kosovo
  • 63 Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA
  • 64 Hiroshima University, Japan
  • 65 University of Gdańsk, Poland
  • 66 Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
  • 67 İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University, Turkey
  • 68 York University, Canada
  • 69 Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • 70 Lund University, Sweden
  • 71 Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia
  • 72 Roma Tre University, Italy
  • 73 Université Clermont Auvergne (LAPSCO), France
  • 74 Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
  • 75 IMD Business School, Switzerland
  • 76 Saint Augustine University of Tanzania, Tanzania
  • 77 University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 78 University of Vienna, Austria
  • 79 University of Groningen, The Netherlands
  • 80 Università di Perugia, Italy
  • 81 AGH University of Krakow, Poland
  • 82 Islamic University of Gaza, Palestine
  • 83 Sunway University, Malaysia
  • 84 Independent Researcher, India
  • 85 Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, France
  • 86 University of Gothenburg, Sweden
  • 87 M. Narikbayev KAZGUU University, Astana, Kazakhstan
  • 88 Osnabrück University, Germany
  • 89 University of Bern, Switzerland
  • 90 Universidad San Sebastián, Concepción, Chile
  • 91 University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica
  • 92 RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Landau, Germany
  • 93 Shenzhen University, China
  • 94 Ohio University, USA
  • 95 Instanbul Medipol University, Turkey
  • 96 UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Br J Soc Psychol, 2025 Apr;64(2):e12806.
PMID: 39439425 DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12806

Abstract

In the present work, we addressed the relationship between parental leave policies and social norms. Using a pre-registered, cross-national approach, we examined the relationship between parental leave policies and the perception of social norms for the gender division of childcare. In this study, 19,259 students (11,924 women) from 48 countries indicated the degree to which they believe childcare is (descriptive norm) and should be (prescriptive norm) equally divided among mothers and fathers. Policies were primarily operationalized as the existence of parental leave options in the respective country. The descriptive and prescriptive norms of equal division of childcare were stronger when parental leave was available in a country - also when controlling for potential confounding variables. Moreover, analyses of time since policy change suggested that policy change may initially affect prescriptive norms and then descriptive norms at a later point. However, due to the cross-sectional nature of the data, drawing causal inferences is difficult.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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