The influence of shared parental leave and care on lone mothers’ financial resources: the case of Iceland

ABSTRACT

Since 2000, Iceland has had an equal parental leave quota for both parents regardless of their marital status or a child’s legal residency. Lone mothers’ much-reported disadvantages and poverty risks have been found to be effectively alleviated by generous parental leave policies by promoting their employment. This study asks if the Icelandic parental leave policy works in favour of lone-parent families by increasing shared care among parents living apart and facilitating lone mothers’ financial resources. The study applies data from four cross-sectional population surveys measuring how parents of firstborn children in 1997, 2003, 2009 and 2014 organise parental leave, work and care, for three years after childbirth. The results show that equal care participation of parents living apart has gradually increased since the enactment of equal parental leave rights. Furthermore, analysis of data collected among parents of children born in 2009 and 2014 shows that when parents have an equal division of care, the mother is likelier to find it easier to make ends meet in the child’s fourth year. These findings emphasise the importance of policies that promote care participation of fathers living apart from the mother.

KEYWORDS:

• parents living apart
• lone parents
• parental leave
• shared care
• financial resources

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Shared custody means that both parents have legal authority to make major decisions for the child but does not necessarily mean that it resides equally with both parents.

2 The study focuses on parents of the opposite sex, as the number of same-sex parents in the data is very small.

3 From 2000 to 2007, non-custodial parents that were not in employment did not have the rights to fixed parental grants, but they gained full rights in 2009.

4 The question referred to whether parent(s) at the child’s legal residency found it easy or difficult to make ends meet. As children whose parents live apart most often reside with the mother, the question provides information on mothers’ financial difficulties. No data were collected on the non-residential parent’s financial status.

5 The datasets only contained the educational level and income of parents in their child’s fourth year and could therefore not be controlled for in the first regression model, where the dependent variable spans the child’s first three years, as that would violate the model.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Iceland Research Fund under grant number 2017, the Icelandic Centre for Research under grant number 185387-051, the Icelandic Gender Equality Fund and the Sigrun Fund.

Notes on contributors

Íris Dögg Lárusdóttir

Íris Dögg Lárusdóttir is a PhD student at the Faculty of Social Work, at the University of Iceland. Her research focus is on lone parents’ parental leave use and fathers’ care participation.

Guðný Björk Eydal

Guðný Björk Eydal is a professor at the Faculty of Social Work, at the University of Iceland. Her main research field is family and care policies in Iceland and the Nordic countries. She has also directed a Nordic research project in the field of disaster social work.

Ásdís A. Arnalds

Ásdís A. Arnalds is a post-doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Social Work, at the University of Iceland. Her research places focus on parental leave policies and their impact on parents’ possibilities to engage in work and care.