Continuity, Stability, and Prediction of Sensitivity and Involvement in Portuguese Father-Infant Free Play Interactions at 3 and 9 Months

A developmental ecological model was used to identify child attributes, father characteristics, and familial factors associated with multidimensional father involvement with preschool children enrolled in Head Start. The relations between father involvement and children's school readiness were also investigated. Eighty-five African American fathers and father figures were surveyed about their involvement in child care, home-based educational and school-based educational activities. Children's school readiness competencies were evaluated via teacher report or direct assessment. Father involvement in child care and home-based educational activities were predicted by different contextual factors and child attributes. Fathers were more involved in child care activities when they lived in a child's home and when a child was highly emotional. Fathers who perceived the existence of a strong parenting alliance reported more involvement in home-based educational activities. Father involvement in child care and home-based educational activities was associated with higher levels of children's emotion regulation. Findings are consistent with a contextual, multidimensional perspective of African American fathering and hold policy implications for fatherhood initiatives in the early childhood education field. Efforts to increase father involvement may be most effective when addressing the multitude of influences on fathering behavior and focusing on father-child activities that occur outside of the preschool setting.

Father involvement is a protective factor for maternal mental health in Western Kenya

As fathering research has flourished, a growing body of studies has focused on behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms, respectively associated with caregiving sensitivity and responsiveness to infant stimuli. However, the association between these aspects and the key concept of paternal involvement in childcare (i.e., contribution in infant care in terms of time, availability, and responsibility) has been poorly investigated. The current work aims to systematically review the role of involvement in childcare on both neural activations and sensitive behaviors in fathers by examining (a) how paternal involvement has been measured and (b) whether paternal involvement has been associated with neurobiological activation and behavioral sensitive responses. Inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed quantitative studies, concerning fathers responding to infant stimuli at neurobiological or behavioral level, and including a quantitative measurement of paternal involvement in childcare. A quality rating for each study has been performed based on the measurements adopted to assess paternal involvement. Of 2,529 articles, 27 studies were included. According to our quality rating, 10 out of 27 studies included fairly good-standard measures for measuring paternal involvement, whereas 17 studies used good-standard measures. In addition, 11 studies provided details of paternal involvement in the context of neurobiological responses to infant stimuli, whereas 16 addressed paternal sensitive behaviors. Overall, only 8 studies reported relevant findings about the relationship between paternal involvement and neurobiological responses or sensitive behaviors in fathers. The present study is the first systematically evaluating the scope of paternal involvement in the field of Paternal Brain and fathers' sensitive responsiveness research. When high-standard measures are used, paternal involvement seems to play a significant role in modulating both the hormonal and the neural pathways associated with paternal behaviors. Remarkably, the role of paternal engagement may underpin an adaptive nurturance that is not dependent on pregnancy and childbirth but on caregiving experience. A promising positive link between paternal involvement and behavioral sensitivity may be expected in further studies, which will need to corroborate our conclusion by adopting detailed and appropriate measures assessing paternal involvement. As a future line of research, the inclusion of gay fathers may be beneficial for the field.

BackgroundGlobally, there is mounting evidence about the importance of father involvement for improving child and family wellbeing. However, there are limited measurement tools available for assessing father involvement in low-resource settings globally. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a scale for measuring fathers’ engagement in caregiving activities for young children and families in rural Kenya.MethodsWe used baseline data collected in February–March 2023 from a cluster-randomized controlled trial of a parenting intervention aimed at improving early child development in Nyamira and Vihiga counties in Western Kenya. The analytic sample comprised 460 primary caregivers of children under 18 months of age (91.3% mothers) who were in a relationship with a male caregiver of the young child (i.e., father). The primary caregiver reported on the 25-item father involvement scale. We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to determine the dimensionality of the measure and estimated latent variable regression models to assess construct and predictive validity in terms of associations with sociodemographic factors, other paternal and maternal psychosocial measures, and early child development outcomes.ResultsThe scale had a four-factor structure representing father involvement in (1) childcare activities, (2) play and affection, (3) household chores, and (4) early learning activities. Each factor showed good internal consistency reliability and evidence of multiple forms of validity. The four factors were associated with child and household sociodemographic characteristics and more positive paternal and maternal psychosocial outcomes. Father involvement across all four domains was associated with higher early child cognitive, language, motor, and socioemotional development scores.ConclusionsOur findings highlight the multidimensional nature of fathers’ caregiving roles in the lives of young children and their families. We establish a valid tool for assessing father involvement in rural Western Kenya that has potential for use in other similar contexts.

Predictors of father-infant attachment security in a Portuguese sample.

Objective:This study assessed the level of fathers’ involvement in childcare activities and its association with the diet quality of their children in Northern Ghana.Setting:The study was carried out in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions of Ghana. The people in the study area mostly depend on agriculture as their main occupation.Design:A community-based comparative analytical cross-sectional study.Participants:A sample of 422 rural mother–father pairs who had at least one child aged 6–36 months.Results:The overall level of fathers’ involvement in childcare and feeding activities was high among 63·5 % of the respondents in the 6 months prior to the study. The most common childcare activity men were involved in was providing money for the purchase of food for the child. Minimum acceptable diet was higher for children with a higher level of paternal involvement in childcare activities (adjusted OR = 3·33 (95 % CI: 1·41, 7·90)), compared to their counterparts whose father’s involvement was poor. Fathers who had a positive attitude to childcare and feeding were 2·9 more likely to get involved in childcare activities (adjusted OR = 2·90 (95 % CI: 1·87, 4·48)).Conclusions:The findings confirm earlier studies that show that fathers’ involvement in childcare activities including feeding is positively associated with improved child feeding practices. The findings point to the need to have a policy shift in which both men and women are key actors in interventions designed to improve child nutritional status in rural settings of Northern Ghana.

Responsive and dynamic aspects of father-child play are associated with behavioral and neurocognitive development in children and could represent an important contributor to executive function (EF) skills for children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH). This study examined associations between paternal behaviors during play and EF skills of DHH children and children with typical hearing (TH). Father-child dyads in families with DHH children (n = 30) and TH children (n = 29) participated in a 15-min video-recorded free-play session that was coded for parental behaviors using Parent-Child Interaction Rating Scales and Rough and Tumble Play Quality. Families also completed an age-appropriate version of the Behavior Rating Index of Executive Function as a measure of child EF. DHH children were rated as having significantly more everyday difficulties with working memory than TH children. Fathers of DHH children were rated as more intrusive during play than fathers of TH children; however, there were no other differences between paternal groups on coded dimensions of father child play. Paternal respect for child autonomy was associated with fewer child difficulties with planning and organization skills and paternal play engagement was associated with fewer child EF difficulties. Moderation analyses revealed that paternal sensitivity was associated with more working memory difficulties and paternal respect for child autonomy was associated with fewer working memory difficulties for DHH children only. Paternal play could be an important environmental context for DHH outcomes. Fathers supporting independent play might generally support EF. Paternal engagement in play might also benefit EF. Results highlight paternal behavioral attributes that could lead to potential father-embedded intervention models.

To reach a greater understanding of the early father-child attachment relationship, this study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations among father involvement, paternal sensitivity, and father-child attachment security at 13 months and 3 years of age. Analyses revealed few associations among these variables at 13 months of age, but involvement and sensitivity independently predicted father-child attachment security at age 3. Moreover, sensitivity moderated the association between involvement and attachment security at 3 years. Specifically, involvement was unrelated to attachment security when fathers were highly sensitive, but positively related to attachment security when fathers were relatively less sensitive. Father involvement was also moderately stable across the two time points, but paternal sensitivity was not. Furthermore, there was significant stability in father-child attachment security from 13 months to 3 years. Secure attachment at 13 months also predicted greater levels of paternal sensitivity at 3 years, with sensitivity at age 3 mediating the association between 13 month and 3 year attachment security. In sum, a secure father-child attachment relationship (a) was related to both quantity and quality of fathering behavior, (b) remained relatively stable across early childhood, and (c) predicted increased paternal sensitivity over time. These findings further our understanding of the correlates of early father-child attachment, and underscore the need to consider multiple domains of fathers' parenting and reciprocal relations between fathering behavior and father-child attachment security.

Objectives Recently, paternal involvement in childcare has been gaining public attention in Japan. However, studies on the influences of active paternal involvement remain scarce. This study aimed to review the findings on the influence of paternal involvement in childcare on mothers, children, and fathers themselves from studies conducted in Japan and published mainly after 2010. Additionally, we examined methodological issues that need to be addressed when researchers conduct studies on paternal involvement in the future.Methods We reviewed 26 journal articles (22 in Japanese and 4 in English) from four databases: "Igaku Chuo Zasshi Web (Japana Centra Revuo Medicina History and Activities)," JSTPlus, JMEDPlus, and PubMed with conditions such as studies conducted in Japan, families with young children, and questionnaire-based quantitative studies. We described respondents (mothers, fathers, or both) and assessed paternal involvement in childcare, outcomes, and findings.Results We reviewed studies on paternal involvement in childcare published in Japanese after 2010 and English after 2000 and observed two trends across the studies. The first was that if mothers acknowledge active paternal involvement in childcare, mothers' parenting stress seemed to be lower, and they seemed to be happier. Moreover, for children's health and development, active paternal involvement seemed to be associated with positive results, such as prevention of unintentional injuries and obesity. However, in the second trend, we observed that active paternal involvement, assessed by the fathers themselves, were often not associated with lower parenting stress among mothers. We also could not observe a consistent trend on the findings related to the influences on fathers, due to the limited number of studies. We observed that assessment of paternal involvement in childcare was inconsistent across studies included in this review.Conclusion With more social pressure for fathers to be actively involved in childcare, public interest for the influence would be heightened. For future studies, better ways of assessing the quantity and content of paternal involvement in childcare need to be discussed.

For almost three decades, the association between paternal sensitivity and infant-father attachment security has been studied. The first wave of studies on the correlates of infant-father attachment showed a weak association between paternal sensitivity and infant-father attachment security (r = .13, p < .001, k = 8, N = 546). In the current paper, a meta-analysis of the association between paternal sensitivity and infant-father attachment based on all studies currently available is presented, and the change over time of the association between paternal sensitivity and infant-father attachment is investigated. Studies using an observational measure of paternal interactive behavior with the infant, and the Strange Situation Procedure to observe the attachment relationship were included. Paternal sensitivity is differentiated from paternal sensitivity combined with stimulation in the interaction with the infant. Higher levels of paternal sensitivity were associated with more infant-father attachment security (r = .12, p < .001, k = 16, N = 1,355). Fathers' sensitive play combined with stimulation was not more strongly associated with attachment security than sensitive interactions without stimulation of play. Despite possible changes in paternal role patterns, we did not find stronger associations between paternal sensitivity and infant attachment in more recent years.

Research in developed countries has found that paternal involvement has positive and significant effects on early childhood development (ECD). Less is known, however, about the state of paternal involvement and its influence on ECD in rural China. Using data collected in Southern China that included 1,460 children aged 6–42 months and their fathers (as well as their primary caregivers), this study examines the association between paternal involvement and ECD. Although the results demonstrate that the average level of paternal involvement is low in rural China, paternal involvement is related to a significant increase in three domains of ECD (cognition, language, and social-emotional skills). Older children benefit significantly more than do younger children from paternal involvement in all domains of ECD. The results also show that, if the mother is the primary caregiver, the mother’s higher educational level and the family’s higher socioeconomic status are positively associated with paternal involvement.

BackgroundAlthough much of the research on the influence of parenting on child development has emphasised the mother’s role, increasing evidence highlights the important role of fathers in the development, health...

BackgroundMuch of the research on parenting and its influence on child development has emphasised the mother's role. However, increasing evidence highlights the important role of fathers in the development, health and well-being of their children. We sought to explore the association between paternal involvement in early child-rearing and depressive symptoms in 9 and 11 year-old children. MethodsWe used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort recruited in the southwest of England. The outcome was depressive symptoms measured using the short Moods and Feelings Questionnaire (sMFQ) score. The main exposure was father involvement measured through factor analysis of fathers’ responses on their participation in, understanding of, and feelings about their child's early upbringing. Scores on factor 1 measured fathers’ emotional response to the child; scores on factor 2 measured the frequency of father involvement in domestic and childcare activities; scores on factor 3 measured fathers’ feelings of security in their role as parent and partner. ResultsChildren of fathers with high scores on factors 1 and 3 had 13% (OR 0.87, 95%CI 0.77–0.98, p = 0.024) and 9% (OR 0.91, 95%CI 0.80–1.03, p = 0.129) respectively lower adjusted odds of depressive symptoms at 9 and 11 years. For factor 2, there was weak evidence of a 17% increase in odds of depressive symptoms associated with 1 unit higher factor scores at both ages (OR 1.17, 95%CI 1.00–1.37, p = 0.050). LimitationsIn these observational data, the possibility of residual confounding in the association between the exposure and the outcome cannot be ruled out. ConclusionPositive psychological and emotional aspects of father involvement in children's early upbringing, but not the quantity of direct involvement in childcare, may protect children against developing symptoms of depression in their pre-teen years.

ObjectiveTo explore the nature of paternal involvement in early child-rearing adopting a social developmental perspective, and estimate its effect on behavioural outcomes of children aged 9 and 11 years.SettingThe data...

The goal of the current study was to examine the role of neighborhood risk and maternal and paternal involvement on multiple forms of prosocial behaviors among recent immigrant US Latino/a adolescents. Additionally, we examined the interactions between parental involvement and neighborhood risk in order to test protective effects of mothers' and fathers' involvement. Participants were 302 adolescents (53.3% male, Mage = 14.51 years, range = 13-17) and their primary caregiver. Data were collected from adolescents in two US cities: Los Angeles (n = 150) and Miami (n = 152). The results demonstrated that maternal involvement was positively associated with emotional, dire, compliant, and anonymous prosocial behaviors. Paternal involvement was positively associated with emotional prosocial behaviors, but this result became non-significant when maternal involvement was also included in the model. While there were no direct links between neighborhood risk and prosocial behaviors, compliant helping increased only when neighborhood risk increased and paternal involvement decreased. Discussion focuses on the role of multiple influences in shaping prosocial behaviors among immigrant youth, with a focus on parental involvement.