We are pleased to announce the publication of Building better parenting leave survey data: A repository of survey questions for comparative policy analysis. Comparative data on who uses parenting leave, and who is excluded from it, remains scarce across Europe, even as the 2019 EU Work-Life Balance Directive requires Member States to report leave take-up by women and men. The report offers a modular set of survey questions that researchers and data-collection agencies can build into new or existing surveys, covering perceived eligibility and application behaviour, refused applications, leave use and duration, reasons for non-use, and views on parental leave. Each question comes with its research rationale, limitations and methodological guidance, with the aim of supporting cross-national data harmonisation in Europe.
Cassandra Engemann, Marie Valentova, Laurène Thil, Anna Šťastná, Anne Hartung, Alžběta Bártová,
Ivana Dobrotić, Ásdís A. Arnalds, Stephan Köppe, Elitsa Dimitrova, Livia García-Faroldi, and Armela
Maxhelaku. 2026. Building better parenting leave survey data: A repository of survey questions for
comparative policy analysis. COST Action Parental Leave Policies and Social Sustainability
(Sustainability@Leave). DOI: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/anr86_v1.