Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1992

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Major Professor

John M. Larsen

Committee Members

John Lounsbury, Tom Ladd, MIke Johnson, Larry Pace

Abstract

The topic of parental leave benefits was examined in this study. In recent years, societal changes have led organizations and government to re-evaluate policies that enable people to balance work and family. Parental leave is a benefit that has been getting increasingly more media attention and considerable debate exists about the appropriateness and effects of proposed parental leave legislation. Survey data was collected from 249 working men and women with an emphasis on obtaining data from members of dual-career couples. The non-random sample was primarily from midwest and southeastern states. Each respondent received a cover letter, a nine-page questionnaire, and a business reply envelope with which to return their completed questionnaire. In general, respondents favored the idea that workers should be offered parental leave benefits (paid or unpaid). However, respondents reported that having unpaid parental leave as an option would not lead them to take more parental leave than they would expect to take under their organizations' current policies. Consistent with the egocentric bias, people who intended to have children in the future were more likely to favor parental leave benefits than people not intending to have children in the future. Consistent with "need theory," it was reported as more appropriate to offer parental leave benefits to mothers than to fathers. Additionally, men expected to take much less parental leave than women. Members of dual-career couples had more favorable attitudes toward parental leave benefits than people not part of a dual-career couple. Also, when considering their own monetary cost associated with taking parental leave, members of dual-career couples expected to take longer parental leave than other respondents. Further research and consideration of benefits to help balance work and family need to be done. The workforce has changed remarkably in the past few decades and more change is on the way. As a result, the needs of the workforce are also changing. When this study began, it was thought that parental leave legislation would have a major impact on the business world. Instead, the results from this study suggest that if the current unpaid parental leave legislation were enacted, employee behavior would not markedly change.

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