2026-10-13T01:54:45Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33865638 2026-09-16T17:30:44Z category_45 category_734 category_106 portal_5 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

<p>Self-reported productivity loss from parenthood.</p> Matteo A. Ruberto (24998589) Ludovica Alesci (24998592) Salvatore Maione (24998595) Valentina Rotondi (12738494) Sociology Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Science Policy text analysis show publications per year individual panel fixed effort task ), discuss design principles couple childcare imbalance better align recognition clear gender heterogeneity caregiving reshapes constraints academic professionals combining div >< p advantage invoke focus productivity metrics count parenthood effects reflects academic productivity extreme heterogeneity caregiving covariates based metrics stronger effects effects models academic assessment objective productivity assessed productivity work identity synthesize evidence suggesting limits subjective assessments statistically indistinguishable standardized real robustly associated respondents shoulder related mechanisms qualitative evidence personal development objective outcomes multinomial models five small evaluative divergence ended responses dominant share apparent inconsistency analytic estimates <div><p>How does parenthood relate to academic productivity when we look beyond publication counts? We synthesize evidence from five small-scale meta-analyses and present original survey data from academic professionals combining (i) objective outcomes (publications per year and a standardized real-effort task), (ii) subjective assessments (self-reported productivity loss), and (iii) qualitative evidence from open-ended responses on perceived (dis)advantage and work identity. Meta-analytic estimates are statistically indistinguishable from zero and characterized by extreme heterogeneity, suggesting limits of publication-based metrics for capturing care-related mechanisms. In our survey, parenthood is not robustly associated with objective productivity once demographic, occupational, and caregiving covariates are considered, including in within-individual panel fixed-effects models. By contrast, perceived productivity loss rises nonlinearly with within-couple childcare imbalance, with stronger effects when respondents shoulder a dominant share of care and clear gender heterogeneity. Multinomial models and text analysis show a lexical and evaluative divergence: academics who reject parenthood as an advantage emphasize time scarcity and care responsibilities, while those affirming an advantage invoke focus, efficiency, and personal development. We argue that the apparent inconsistency of parenthood effects reflects a mismatch between <i>what</i> productivity metrics count and <i>how</i> caregiving reshapes constraints, capacities, and evaluation. We discuss design principles for academic assessment that better align recognition with performance under care constraints.</p></div> 2026-09-16T17:30:16Z Dataset Dataset 10.1371/journal.pone.0355683.t001 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/_p_Self-reported_productivity_loss_from_parenthood_p_/33865638 CC BY 4.0