IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v180y2026ics0190740925005705.html

Who benefits? examining the moderating role of race in paid family leave’s relationship with infant neglect

Author

Listed:
  • Tanis, Jennifer M
  • Boyke, Hannah

Abstract

Paid family leave (PFL) policies provide caregivers with essential time away from work to care for their infants, potentially alleviating economic stressors that contribute to infant neglect. While prior research suggests that PFL reduces infant maltreatment risk, its relationship with neglect, specifically, remains understudied. This study examines whether PFL implementation influences neglect rates and whether this relationship varies by the racial composition of state populations from 2003 to 2022. We analyze state-level neglect data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, constructing a longitudinal panel dataset across 44 states and Washington, DC. Using mixed effects beta regression, we assess whether state-level shares of residents identifying as people of color (POC), Black, American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN), Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI), or Hispanic/Latinx moderate the relationship between PFL and neglect rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Tanis, Jennifer M & Boyke, Hannah, 2026. "Who benefits? examining the moderating role of race in paid family leave’s relationship with infant neglect," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:180:y:2026:i:c:s0190740925005705
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108687
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740925005705
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108687?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lawrence M. Berger & Jane Waldfogel, 2011. "Economic Determinants and Consequences of Child Maltreatment," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 111, OECD Publishing.
    2. Otto Lenhart, 2021. "The effects of paid family leave on food insecurity—evidence from California," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 615-639, September.
    3. Maya Rossin‐Slater & Christopher J. Ruhm & Jane Waldfogel, 2013. "The Effects of California's Paid Family Leave Program on Mothers’ Leave‐Taking and Subsequent Labor Market Outcomes," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 224-245, March.
    4. Lawrence M. Berger & Sarah A. Font & Kristen S. Slack & Jane Waldfogel, 2017. "Income and child maltreatment in unmarried families: evidence from the earned income tax credit," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1345-1372, December.
    5. Zhai, Fuhua & Waldfogel, Jane & Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, 2013. "Estimating the effects of Head Start on parenting and child maltreatment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1119-1129.
    6. Kalsoom B. & Mehtab Alam, 2022. "Understanding and Improving Digital Tourism Events in Pakistan," Springer Books, in: Azizul Hassan (ed.), Technology Application in Tourism Fairs, Festivals and Events in Asia, chapter 0, pages 233-247, Springer.
    7. Maguire-Jack, Kathryn & Cao, Yiwen & Yoon, Susan, 2018. "Racial disparities in child maltreatment: The role of social service availability," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 49-55.
    8. Silvia Ferrari & Francisco Cribari-Neto, 2004. "Beta Regression for Modelling Rates and Proportions," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(7), pages 799-815.
    9. Vij, Akshay & Ardeshiri, Ali & Li, Tiebei & Beer, Andrew & Crommelin, Laura, 2022. "Understanding what attracts new residents to smaller cities," SocArXiv fpxum, Center for Open Science.
    10. Liu, Yang & Feng, Tao & Shi, Zhuangbin & He, Mingwei, 2022. "Understanding the route choice behaviour of metro-bikeshare users," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 460-475.
    11. Raissian, Kerri M. & Bullinger, Lindsey Rose, 2017. "Money matters: Does the minimum wage affect child maltreatment rates?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 60-70.
    12. Manisha Choudhary & Sushil Kumar & Subhash . & Madhavi Sharma, 2022. "Understanding Teamwork Affects Ingenuity in Creative Initiatives," World Journal of English Language, Sciedu Press, vol. 12(3), pages 1-39, April.
    13. Feng Chen, 2023. "Does paid family leave save infant lives? Evidence from California's paid family leave program," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(2), pages 319-337, April.
    14. Jessica Pac & Ann P. Bartel & Christopher Ruhm & Jane Waldfogel, 2019. "Paid Family Leave and Breastfeeding: Evidence from California," Working Papers 2019-031, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    15. Chatterji, Pinka & Nguyen, Trang & Ncube, Butho & Dennison, Barbara A., 2022. "Effects of New York state paid family leave on early immunizations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    16. Shengliang Zhang & Chaoying Huang & Xiaodong Li & Ai Ren, 2022. "Understanding Impacts of Service Robots with the Revised Gap Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-23, February.
    17. Bullinger, Lindsey Rose, 2019. "The Effect of Paid Family Leave on Infant and Parental Health in the United States," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 101-116.
    18. repec:osf:socarx:fpxum_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Doran, Elizabeth L. & Bartel, Ann P. & Ruhm, Christopher J. & Waldfogel, Jane, 2020. "California's paid family leave law improves maternal psychological health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    20. ., 2022. "Understanding agent-based computational simulation," Chapters, in: How Do I Develop an Agent-Based Model?, chapter 2, pages 20-51, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    21. Cribari-Neto, Francisco & Zeileis, Achim, 2010. "Beta Regression in R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 34(i02).
    22. King, Gary & Roberts, Margaret E., 2015. "How Robust Standard Errors Expose Methodological Problems They Do Not Fix, and What to Do About It," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(2), pages 159-179, April.
    23. Berger, Lawrence M., 2004. "Income, family structure, and child maltreatment risk," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(8), pages 725-748, August.
    24. ., 2022. "Understanding organizational resilience," Chapters, in: Resilience and the Management of Nonprofit Organizations, chapter 3, pages 35-44, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Priyanka Anand & Tamar Matiashvili & Maya Rossin-Slater, 2026. "Paid Caregiving Leave Policies and an Update on Paid Parental Leave," NBER Working Papers 34997, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Aghahosseini, Arman & Solomon, A.A. & Breyer, Christian & Pregger, Thomas & Simon, Sonja & Strachan, Peter & Jäger-Waldau, Arnulf, 2023. "Energy system transition pathways to meet the global electricity demand for ambitious climate targets and cost competitiveness," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    3. Silva-Rêgo, Bernardo & Kogut, Clarice, 2026. "Digital IB risks: A systematic literature review through internalisation lenses," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(1).
    4. Kovárník Richard & Staňková Michaela, 2023. "Efficiency of the Automotive Industry in the Visegrad Group," LOGI – Scientific Journal on Transport and Logistics, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 12-23, January.
    5. Cassandra Benson & Maria D. Fitzpatrick & Samuel Bondurant, 2025. "Beyond Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic: The Role of Teachers and Schools in Reporting Child Maltreatment," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 60(1), pages 153-186.
    6. William Schneider & Lindsey Rose Bullinger & Kerri M. Raissian, 2022. "How does the minimum wage affect child maltreatment and parenting behaviors? An analysis of the mechanisms," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1119-1154, December.
    7. Chatterji, Pinka & Nguyen, Trang & Ncube, Butho & Dennison, Barbara A., 2022. "Effects of New York state paid family leave on early immunizations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    8. Chia Jung Chang, 2021. "Is the Road to Unemployment Paved with Good Intentions? Labor Market Outcomes of Young Women," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 244-302, June.
    9. Jiyoon Kim & Otto Lenhart, 2024. "Paid family leave and the fight against hunger: Evidence from New York," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(7), pages 1503-1527, July.
    10. Li, Qiang & Wu, Lu & Guan, Xinjia & Tian, Ze-jin, 2024. "Interplay of network topologies in aviation delay propagation: A complex network and machine learning analysis," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 638(C).
    11. Bailey, Martha J. & Byker, Tanya & Patel, Elena & Ramnath, Shanthi, 2019. "The Long-Term Effects of California’s 2004 Paid Family Leave Act on Women’s Careers: Evidence from U.S. Tax Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 14217, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Louis‐Philippe Beland & Jason Huh & Dongwoo Kim, 2021. "The effect of Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions on foster care admissions," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(11), pages 2943-2951, November.
    13. Sandner, Malte & Thomsen, Stephan L., 2020. "Preventing Child Maltreatment: Beneficial Side Effects of Public Childcare Provision," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-669, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    14. Sandner, Malte & Thomsen, Stephan L., 2018. "The Effects of Universal Public Childcare Provision on Cases of Child Neglect and Abuse," IZA Discussion Papers 11687, IZA Network @ LISER.
    15. repec:osf:socarx:y825p_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Bullinger, Lindsey Rose & Raissian, Kerri M. & Feely, Megan & Schneider, William J., 2021. "The neglected ones: Time at home during COVID-19 and child maltreatment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    17. Cai, Julie Yixia, 2021. "Earnings instability and child protection: Evidence from state administrative data," SocArXiv y825p, Center for Open Science.
    18. Louis-Philippe Beland & Jason Huh & Dongwoo Kim, 2021. "The Effect of ACA Medicaid Expansions on Foster Care Admissions," Carleton Economic Papers 21-07, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    19. Martha Bailey & Tanya Byker & Elena Patel & Shanthi Ramnath, 2025. "The Long-Run Effects of California's Paid Family Leave Act on Women's Careers and Childbearing: New Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design and US Tax Data," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 401-431, February.
    20. Paulus, Anne & Hagemann, Nina & Baaken, Marieke C. & Roilo, Stephanie & Alarcón-Segura, Viviana & Cord, Anna F. & Beckmann, Michael, 2022. "Landscape context and farm characteristics are key to farmers' adoption of agri-environmental schemes," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    21. Ameztegui, Aitor & Coll, Lluís & Messier, Christian, 2015. "Modelling the effect of climate-induced changes in recruitment and juvenile growth on mixed-forest dynamics: The case of montane–subalpine Pyrenean ecotones," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 313(C), pages 84-93.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:180:y:2026:i:c:s0190740925005705. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.