Life course patterns after parental leave: a 10-year Swedish cohort study with sequence analysis

BACKGROUND: Knowledge on long-term life course patterns after parental leave is limited. We examined future work-, family-, and sickness absence (SA) and disability pension (DP) life courses after parental leave in Sweden and the baseline factors associated with them. METHODS: A prospective cohort study using nationwide register microdata, including all women (n = 43,959) and men (n = 43,514) with their first parental leave benefit in 2010. We used sequence analysis to examine their work-, family-, and SA/DP-related life-course patterns for the 10-year follow-up. Multinomial regression analysis was used to analyse the associations of baseline sociodemographics and morbidity with specific cluster membership. RESULTS: Four life-course sequences were identified for both women and men. ‘Employment/studies’ (47% of women, 88% of men); ‘Employment/studies & parental leave’ (37% of women); ‘Rapid return to employment/studies’ (6% of men); ‘Slow return to employment/studies’ (9% of women); ‘Low level of employment/studies’ (6% of women, 5% of men); and ‘Increasing sickness absence & disability pension (SA/DP)’ (1% of men). In women, low education (OR range 4.31-58.02), immigrant background (OR range 1.37-3.95), and morbidity (OR range 1.08-1.91) were associated with being in the ‘Employment/studies & parental leave', ‘Slow return to employment/studies', or ‘Low level of employment/studies’ life courses compared with the ‘Employment/studies’ life course. In men, the associations with low education (OR range 4.30-12.98), immigrant background (OR range 2.64-5.71) and morbidity (OR range 1.54-8.01) were found for ‘Rapid return to employment/studies', ‘Low level of employment/studies’ and ‘Increasing SA/DP'. CONCLUSIONS: After the first parental leave, women have more often than men life course patterns of slow return to work or alternating periods of employment and parental leave. Education, birth country, and morbidity are associated with future life course patterns in women and men. KEY MESSAGES: • After the first parental leave, women have more variable working life courses than men, with more women with patterns of slow return to work or alternating periods of employment and parental leave. • Prior low education, immigrant background, and morbidity are associated with more variable life course patterns among both women and men.