Fathers make definite contributions to infant development and are now spending more time with their children than in many past decades. This article reviews the most compelling research on the developmental importance of fathers, including father-infant attachment and interaction, and differences between maternal and paternal interaction styles. Results of a long-term study of primary caregivin...

We present findings based on several of our recent studies that have shown that father engagement has significant effects on children’s cognition and language at 24 and 36 months and their social and emotional development at 24, 36 months, and pre-Kindergarten. These studies are guided by the Dynamics of Paternal Influences on Children over the Life Course Model that stipulates the important co...

BACKGROUND Numerous studies have documented a profound reduction in alcohol use among pregnant women, whereas research on expectant fathers has been scarce. The aim of this study was to measure changes in alcohol consumption from before pregnancy to 17 weeks in gestation for mothers and fathers, differentiating between parents with and without any previous children, and to measure how level and...

BACKGROUND Children's learning about food and physical activity is considerable during their formative years, with parental influence pivotal. Research has focused predominantly on maternal influences with little known about the relationships between fathers' and young children's dietary and physical activity behaviours. A greater understanding of paternal beliefs regarding young children's die...

K E Y WORDS: Adolescent Mothers; Biological Fathers; Family Life. Adolescent birth rates have increased every year since 1987, after remaining rather stable or falling throughout the earlier decades. A recent report cites that there were 62 births to every 1000 women aged 15-19; one-fourth of African-American women had their first birth before they reached age 19 (Child Trends, 1994). High teen...

Relying on new data from fathers in the Fragile Families and Child WellBeing survey (n=2,903), I examine fathers’ reports of the “most important” perceived paternal role among six different domains: providing economic support, direct care, love and affection, protection, discipline, and teaching the child about life. Approximately half of all fathers identified providing love and affection as t...

OBJECTIVES Maternal satisfaction during the birthing process has been well documented, whereas little is known about the fathers' birth experiences. Our objective was to evaluate and compare the birth satisfaction of mothers and fathers. DESIGN Comparative cross-sectional study. SETTING Number of participating centres: one level III maternity centre (2813 births in 2011) in Sherbrooke, Queb...

OBJECTIVES Offspring of older men have impaired cognitive ability as children, but it is unclear if this impairment persists into adulthood. The main objective of this study was to explore the association between paternal age at offspring birth and general cognitive ability as young adults. DESIGN Population-based cross-sectional study with prospectively collected data on obstetric factors an...

BACKGROUND Food parenting practices (FPPs) are important in shaping children's dietary behaviors. However, existing FPP knowledge is largely based on research with mothers. PURPOSE This study (1) identified fathers' FPPs; (2) described differences in FPP use by fathers' education and residential status. METHODS Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 fathers (39 ± 9.1 years; 37.5%...