New dads who take longer parental leave less likely to suffer depression

By Stephen Beech

New dads who take longer paternal leave are less likely to suffer depression, according to a study.

Researchers found that fathers who take several months of parental leave have a lower risk of developing depressive symptoms during the early years of their child's life than dads who take only a short time off.

Previous studies on parental leave had traditionally focused on mothers' health, while less attention has been paid to fathers' mental health.

For the new study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers followed 746 Swedish fathers over 18 months, starting when their babies were around 9 months old.

The fathers answered questions about depressive symptoms at the start of the study and again at the follow-up, when their children were around 27 months old.

Information about fathers' parental leave was collected at the later follow-up.

Because fathers' mental health might influence how much leave they take, the research team accounted for fathers' depressive symptoms measured at the start of the study.

They also adjusted for factors such as family and socioeconomic circumstances, and the amount of parental leave taken by the mother.

The results show that fathers who took 14 to 40 weeks of parental leave were "significantly less" likely to show signs of depression than fathers who only took up to four weeks of leave.

Fathers who took five to 13 weeks did not show the same pattern, and neither did those who took more than 40 weeks, when compared with the up-to-four-weeks group.

In Sweden, each parent has 90 nontransferable parental leave days, around 13 weeks.

Study co-author Dr. Michael Wells said: "Our results suggest that fathers who take parental leave beyond the 90 days, but not more than 60% of the total leave, may have better mental health."

Wells, of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, added: "A hypothesis is that having sustained time at home helps fathers build a closer connection with their child, feel more secure in the parenting role and establish everyday routines, which may, in turn, reduce the risk of depressive symptoms."

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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 3:01 PM.