Could gender equality in parental leave harm off-springs' mental health? a registry study of the Swedish parental/child cohort of 1988/89

The population consisted of Swedish parents and their firstborn child in 1988-1989 (N = 118 595 family units) and the statistical method was multiple logistic regression. Gender equality of childcare was indicated by the division of parental leave (1988-1990), and child mental ill-health was indicated by outpatient mental care (2001-2006) and drug prescription (2005-2008), for anxiety and depression.The overall finding was that boys with gender traditional parents (mother dominance in childcare) have lower risk of depression measured by outpatient mental care than boys with gender-equal parents, while girls with gender traditional and gender untraditional parents (father dominance in childcare) have lower risk of anxiety measured by drug prescription than girls with gender-equal parents.This study suggests that unequal parenting regarding early childcare, whether traditional or untraditional, is more beneficial for offspring's mental health than equal parenting. However, further research is required to confirm our findings and to explore the pathways through which increased gender equality may influence child health.Mental ill-health among children and young adults is a rapidly growing public health problem in Sweden and many parts of the world [1,2]. Among the eslished causes of depression and anxiety are factors associated with family life during grow up, such as parental neglect or overprotection, parents' mental ill-health and substance misuse, and loss of parent [3-6]. Further, since females generally suffer more from mental ill-health conditions than males [5,7,8], the search for explanations should consider the gender system. This refers to the spectrum of social structures leading boys and girls, men and women, to take on different attitudes, behaviors and works, and to an unequal division of power between the sexes [9]. Hence, a contributor to mental health may be experiences from growing up regarding gendered aspects of family life, in other words, from ho