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. 2022 Jul;93(4):1030-1043.
doi: 10.1111/cdev.13765. Epub 2022 Apr 4.

Paid maternal leave is associated with infant brain function at 3 months of age

Natalie H Brito  1 , Denise Werchan  2 , Annie Brandes-Aitken  1 , Hirokazu Yoshikawa  1 , Ashley Greaves  1 , Maggie Zhang  1
Affiliations

Paid maternal leave is associated with infant brain function at 3 months of age

Natalie H Brito et al. Child Dev. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

The first months of life are critical for establishing neural connections relevant for social and cognitive development. Yet, the United States lacks a national policy of paid family leave during this important period of brain development. This study examined associations between paid leave and infant electroencephalography (EEG) at 3 months in a sociodemographically diverse sample of families from New York City (N = 80; 53 males; 48% Latine; data collection occurred 05/2018-12/2019). Variable-centered regression results indicate that paid leave status was related to differences in EEG power (ps < .02, R2 s > .12). Convergent results from person-centered latent profile analyses demonstrate that mothers with paid leave were 7.39 times as likely to have infants with EEG profiles characterized by increased higher-Hz power (95% CI, 1.9-36.9), potentially reflecting more mature patterns of brain activity.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Associations between percentage of income provided during leave and mother–infant interaction quality
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Two profile model of electroencephalography (EEG) relative activation patterns. (a) Class 1 had higher relative EEG power across low frequency bands (theta). (b) Class 2 was characterized by increased relative EEG power across higher frequency bands, a profile typically reflecting greater maturational development. (c) Classification of infants based on most-likely profile membership. (d) Mothers with paid leave were over 7 times as likely to have infants classified in the higher Hz EEG profile. No other variables predicted profile membership
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Within the low Hz electroencephalography (EEG) profile, mothers with unpaid leave had significantly greater cortisol levels than mothers of infants in the low Hz paid leave profile and the higher Hz profile. In addition, dyads in the paid leave/low Hz EEG profile showed significantly lower levels of parent-led interactions. Cross bars represent group means with 95% bootstrapped confidence intervals
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