A Child Changes More Than Diapers: Does Parenthood Reshape Trust in Local Government Officials?

Becoming a parent changes household priorities, time horizons and exposure to public institutions, but its consequences for political trust remain uncertain. Using a staggered difference‐in‐differences design, this study finds that first childbirth is followed by higher trust in local government officials. Event‐study tests find no evidence of differential pre‐trends, and the result remain stable in robustness tests such as alternative clustering, a stacked DID estimator, pregnancy‐based treatment timing, placebo tests and controls for province‐specific shocks and trends. The increase is smaller among respondents who perceive more serious integrity or social‐security problems, larger among men and stronger when the child has health insurance or other family members report high trust. The gender pattern is consistent with evidence that first childbirth reduces women's, but not men's, employment probability. These findings highlight parenthood as a consequential life‐course event for institutional attitudes and show that the associated change in political trust varies with the perceived quality and visibility of public support.