Pregnancy reflects a common experience for women in today's workforce, yet recent data suggest that some women scale back or leave the workforce following childbirth. Considering these effects on women's careers, researchers have sought to understand the underlying dynamics of these decisions. Here, we explore a paradoxical reason for weakened postpartum career attitudes: help that women receive during pregnancy. We integrate stereotype threat and benevolent sexism theories to explain how the effects of help on postpartum intentions to quit may be transmitted through reductions in work self‐efficacy. In doing so, we consider the role of perceived impact—or the extent to which help interferes with versus enables women's perceived ability to continue performing their work role. Results of a weekly diary study of 105 pregnant employees suggest that work‐interfering help led to decreased self‐efficacy for work during the following week. Furthermore, there was an indirect effect of average help received at work during pregnancy on postpartum intentions to quit the workforce through reductions in work self‐efficacy that was stronger insofar as help was work‐interfering versus work‐enabling. Taken together, our results highlight unintended negative consequences that occur when others provide ineffective support to women at work during pregnancy.

中文翻译：

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怀孕期间的帮助如何破坏自我效能并增加产后戒烟意愿

怀孕反映了当今劳动力中女性的普遍经历，但是最近的数据表明，一些女性在分娩后会缩减规模或离开劳动力。考虑到这些因素对女性职业的影响，研究人员试图了解这些决定的内在动力。在这里，我们探讨了产后职业态度减弱的悖论原因：帮助妇女在怀孕期间获得帮助。我们整合了刻板印象的威胁和善意的性别歧视理论，以解释如何通过降低工作自我效能感来传递帮助对产后戒烟的影响。在此过程中，我们考虑了感知影响的作用-或者帮助在多大程度上干扰了妇女的能力，使她们能够继续履行其工作职责。每周对105名怀孕雇员进行的日记研究结果表明，工作干扰的帮助导致下一周工作的自我效能下降。此外，在怀孕期间工作中获得的平均帮助对产后通过减少工作自我效能感而退出劳动力的间接影响，这种影响在帮助干扰工作与促进工作方面的影响更大。综上所述，我们的结果强调了当他人在怀孕期间为工作中的妇女提供无效支持时发生的意想不到的负面后果。