Effects of maternity harassment on retirement and maternal and child health: Focusing on differences in employment status.

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K17398
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 58030:Hygiene and public health-related: excluding laboratory approach
• Research Institution: Kitasato University
• Principal Investigator: Kachi Yuko 北里大学, 医学部, 講師 (10579337)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 就労妊婦 / マタニティハラスメント / 周産期うつ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Maternity harassment is the harassment or disadvantageous treatment of female workers because of pregnancy, childbirth or child rearing. Despite being illegal in many developed countries, there is no end to it. In this study, we examined the association between maternity harassment and depressive symptoms among pregnant employees. As a result, one quarter of pregnant employees experienced maternity harassment and had a 2.5 times higher prevalence of depression than those who did not. Telework as an infection control measure was not effective in buffering the association between maternal harassment and depression.

Free Research Field

社会疫学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

少子化による労働人口の減少が懸念される中、妊娠・出産後の就労継続による女性労働力
の安定的な確保が求められている。しかし、マタニティハラスメントにより、一部の女性は退職を余儀なくされている。また、マタハラにより、母体の健康や胎児の発育に悪影響が生じている可能性がある。本研究は、女性が妊娠・出産後も安心して働き続けられる職場環境を整えるための施策や、周産期の母子の健康を守るための施策の基礎資料になると考えられる。