After the birth of a child, employed mothers must make return-to-work and breastfeeding decisions. Prior organizational research focuses on how the mother's work environment affects these decisions, yet they are made with personal and relationship considerations in mind. We use the work-home resources model and identity theory to address two pressing questions. First, do mothers' identity and fathers' paternity leave provide resources for supporting breastfeeding and return to work? Second, can mothers' separation anxiety help explain the psychological mechanisms for this process? We expect more work-centric mothers and those whose partners take longer leaves to have lower maternal separation anxiety, and thereby shorter maternity leave length and shorter breastfeeding duration. We leverage the National Institute of Child Health and Development's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. We conducted analyses using data from 491 families and nine time points from childbirth to 3 years post birth. Consistent with the work-home resources model, the father's leave length is negatively related to mother's separation anxiety, which is positively related to her leave length. We also found that the father's leave length is directly and positively related to mother's leave length and breastfeeding duration, and the mother's work centrality is negatively related to her leave length. We explain how these results fit into the work-home resources model and suggest organizations should provide mothers with control over return-to-work decisions and encourage longer paternity leave.

中文翻译：

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我不想离开我的孩子：母亲和父亲如何影响母亲的母乳喂养时间和休假时间

孩子出生后，职业母亲必须做出重返工作岗位和母乳喂养的决定。先前的组织研究侧重于母亲的工作环境如何影响这些决定，但这些决定是在考虑个人和关系的情况下做出的。我们使用工作-家庭资源模型和身份理论来解决两个紧迫的问题。首先，母亲的身份和父亲的陪产假是否为支持母乳喂养和重返工作岗位提供了资源？其次，母亲的分离焦虑能否有助于解释这一过程的心理机制？我们预计，更多以工作为中心的母亲以及伴侣休假时间较长的母亲的分离焦虑程度较低，从而缩短产假时间和缩短母乳喂养时间。我们利用国家儿童健康与发展研究所的早期儿童保育和青少年发展研究。我们使用来自 491 个家庭和从分娩到出生后 3 年的 9 个时间点的数据进行了分析。与工作-家庭资源模型一致，父亲的休假时间与母亲的分离焦虑呈负相关，而母亲的分离焦虑与母亲的休假时间呈正相关。我们还发现，父亲的休假时间与母亲的休假时间和母乳喂养时间直接正相关，而母亲的工作中心性与其休假时间负相关。我们解释了这些结果如何适应工作家庭资源模型，并建议组织应为母亲提供重返工作决定的控制权，并鼓励更长的陪产假。