The Impacts of New York State's Paid Family Leave Policy on Parents' Sleep and Exercise.

Objectives: To assess changes in young parents' health behaviors following implementation of New York State's Paid Family Leave Program (NYSPFL).

Methods: We used synthetic control (N = 117,552) and difference-in-differences (N = 18,973) models with data from the nationally representative Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from 2011 to 2019 to provide individual-level estimates of the effects of NYSPFL on self-reported exercise in the past month and average daily sleep of adults aged 21-30 years living with one or more children under 18 years of age in New York and comparison states.

Results: Synthetic control model results indicate that the NYSPFL increased the likelihood of exercise in the past month among mothers, single parents, and low-income parents by 6.3-10.3% points (pp), whereas fathers showed a decrease in exercise (7.8 pp). Fathers, single parents, and those with two or more children showed increases in daily sleep between 14 and 21 min per day.

Conclusions For Practice: State paid family and medical leave laws may provide benefits for health behaviors among young parents with children under 18, particularly those in low-income and single-parent households.