The researchers conclude: “The present study challenges the assumption that women are more suited to primary caregiving than men … fathers and mothers are equally competent at parenting in the primary caregiving role.”

Based on this finding, they recommend: “The high quality of parenting demonstrated by the primary caregiver fathers suggests that more fathers should be encouraged to be highly involved parents. To do so, policies facilitating this, such as shared parental leave and flexible work, including more part-time employment options, need to be widely promoted both by governments and by individual organizations.”

Previous research on primary caregiver fathers has often focused on gay fathers who became parents through adoption and surrogacy. These studies also found that children’s adjustment was positive. This study extends the research to heterosexual parent couples.

“The high quality of parenting demonstrated by the primary caregiver fathers suggests that more fathers should be encouraged to be highly involved parents.”

The study took place in the United Kingdom between 2017 and 2019,  and involved 41 primary caregiver fathers, 45 primary caregiver mothers, and 41 dual earner couples (both mother and father). The primary caregiver mothers and fathers had been the primary caregivers for at least 6 months, with children from 3 to 6 years old. Their partner was the primary wage earner; some primary caregivers (fathers more than mothers) were also employed part time or worked flexibly from home, but they spent more time caregiving than working. In the dual earner families, both parents were in paid employment and many worked full time. The families were mostly White and highly educated, and had no serious financial difficulties.

Through questionnaires and interviews, the researchers used previously tested measures to assess depression, anxiety, stress, social support, marital quality, the coparenting relationship, parental acceptance/rejection of the child, parenting quality, and children’s behavior. When assessing children’s behavior, the children’s preschool or schoolteacher also completed a questionnaire.

This research confirms a large body of earlier research showing that the parenting behaviors of fathers and mothers are similar, as is their influence on children’s development. Primary caregiver fathers typically describe their role in nurturing terms as fostering a close bond with their child.

In one study, compared to primary earner fathers, primary caregiver fathers showed higher emotional tone and their 12-month-olds showed more positive mood. In another study, very involved fathers had a more playful interaction style than the mothers, though both these mothers and fathers smiled more and imitated their child more than less-involved fathers. In other studies, primary caregiver mothers were more affectionate with their 3-month-olds and their 8- to 12-month-olds than primary caregiver fathers.

Other studies have found that primary caregiver fathers face particular social pressures – social isolation in a mother-dominated world of playgroups and playgrounds, the stigma of adopting a non-traditional role, and less social support. However, in this study, the fathers reported positive well-being. Perhaps the strong marital relationships and coparenting arrangements were enough to compensate for any additional social pressure.

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Positive coparenting leads to more father involvement and more father involvement leads to positive coparenting. It is chicken-and-egg.

We know from both research and real–life experience that there is a link between the father-mother relationship and how involved the father is in caring for his child. When couples coparent well – working as a team with good communication and valuing and respecting each other’s role – fathers tend to be more involved in caring for their children. Though it’s challenging, positive coparenting can continue even after a romantic relationship has ended or if the parents live apart.

Parenting is part of a family system. Every relationship influences every other relationship. For example, the quality of a couple’s relationship influences fathering over time.

Because these things tend to go together, researchers have asked the chicken-and-egg question: what comes first? Does positive coparenting lead to more father involvement or does more father involvement lead to positive coparenting?

In recent research from the USA, mothers and fathers in 3,464 couples were asked at three different times to assess the quality of coparenting and the extent of father involvement – when the child was one, three, and five. The researchers then applied a sophisticated statistical analysis to find links.

They found that both coparenting and father involvement at one point in a child’s life predict more of each other at a later time point, with some interesting details.

Better coparenting predicts more father involvement later

If either the mother or father reported better coparenting at one time point, then both parents reported more father involvement at the next time point. However, the link between a mother’s report of coparenting and a father’s later report of involvement, and vice versa, was only found for resident couples. The researchers speculate that perhaps non-residence is a barrier between effective coparenting and later father involvement in care.

More father involvement predicts better coparenting later

If either the mother or father reported more father involvement at one point, then both parents reported more positive coparenting at the next point. There was one exception: When fathers reported they were more involved when the child was one year old, mothers were on average less likely to report positive coparenting two years later. One possible explanation for this is that fathers are overestimating the level of their involvement, and this lack of agreement between the parents may later lead to a less favourable assessment of coparenting on the mother’s part.

This research builds on earlier evidence of influences in both directions. Studies have shown that when mothers do not support coparenting, fathers engage less with their infants. Positive coparenting is also a robust predictor of nonresident fathers’ future involvement. Similarly, there is evidence that when fathers are more involved in caring, their relationship with the child’s mother is better.

The new research from the USA involved, 3,464 couples; 42% of the fathers were black, 28% were white and 25% were Hispanic. The study focused primarily on unmarried couples in large American cities. Between the first measurement (child one year old) and third measurement (age five), the quality of couple relationships declined overall. The proportion of coresident couples dropped from 65% to 50%, and the proportion of parents in a romantic relationship dropped from 40% to 18%. Also over this period, the level of father involvement dropped off, according to both mothers and fathers.

Coparenting was measured by asking each parent questions like “does the mother/father support the way you want to raise your child?”, “does the mother/father talk with you about problems with raising your child?” and “does the mother/father respect your rules for the child?”. Father involvement was measured by asking about activities like reading/telling stories, playing inside the house and singing with the child.

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The coparenting study contributes to our growing understanding of how complex family systems operate, with different relationships influencing each other.

When parents work well together as a team – known as “coparenting” – fathers tend to be more involved in caring for the children, according to a new study of disadvantaged parents in the USA. 

It is easy to understand why positive coparenting could promote more father engagement, and why more father engagement could promote a better parental relationship. This finding suggests that when it comes to help with raising young children, it’s important to support both mothers and fathers. A federal program in the USA, Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood, which began in 2005, provides exactly this kind of support among low–income families. The study of coparenting and father engagement was part of the evaluation of this program.

Whilst coparenting and father engagement are linked for all fathers in the ‘here and now’, the study also found a link across time. Resident fathers were more likely to beactively involved in care when a child was 36 months old if both the mother and the father reported better coparenting when the child was 15 months old. This link was not found among non-resident fathers, perhaps because their inconsistent presence means that what happens at one time point in the family has less effect on what happens at another.

The link between coparenting and later father involvement was not found in relation to fathers playing more with children—perhaps because fathers may engage in play regardless of the quality of the coparenting relationship with the mother.

In the study, involving 1,908 families, mothers and fathers were interviewed by phone when their child was 15 months old and again when 36 months old. Fathers were classified as resident if they lived with the mother most or all of the time, and non-resident if none or only some of the time. 

Coparenting was measured with ratings like “My child’s other parent and I communicate well about our child” and “I feel good about my child’s other parent’s judgment about what is right for our child.” Both parents’ responses were combined into a single measure of coparenting quality.

Involvement in caring was measured by asking fathers how often they did things like dress and feed the child or change diapers. Engagement in play covered activities such as singing, reading, telling stories and playing games.

The study contributes to our growing understanding of how complex family systems operate, with different relationships influencing each other.

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Engaged fathering usually means other family relationships are going well. That’s why it predicts successful development in children.

For more than 30 years, we’ve known about an intriguing finding: a father’s involvement early in development is often the best predictor of a child’s success later on – for example, in achievement tests at 16 or in avoiding a criminal record by the age of 25. In short, the more involved a father is, the better children tend to do in school and the more likely they are to avoid criminal behaviour, even nearly two decades later.

But what does that mean? You could be forgiven for concluding that raising children well is all down to the direct and wondrous influence of men upon their progeny. All that’s required is to pour a bit more precious paternal magic into a child, and, hey presto, the job’s done.

But child development is much more complex than that. For a start, children determine a lot of their own development, irrespective of what mum and dad have in mind. It’s not all down to parents. We also know that a successful upbringing depends on a host of subtle variants in multiple relationships – between parents and child, parent and parent, and with other relatives and key people who take part in children’s lives.

Fatherhood and other relationships

How, then, does all this fit in with the suggestion that a good dose of dad is all the medicine that a child needs? Looking a little deeper into the evidence, it becomes clear that paternal involvement is, in fact, not simply a good in itself, though it certainly has intrinsic benefits. It’s also a marker for the healthiness of all the other relationships that, together, make such a difference to human development.

“You cannot extract an essence of fathering – or, indeed, of mothering – because these relationships are themselves a complex product of a wider range of relationships.”

In particular, father involvement is typically an indicator of how well mum and dad get along. That’s because a big benefit to children from parental engagement springs from actions that relate to responsibility – taking care the lunch box is ready, that the child is safe. Fathers may do those things only when the mother encourages them or leaves a space for them to do so. Thus, although the fathering is important in itself, it often highlights what’s happening between mum and dad. The health of the couple relationship is, in turn, the strongest predictor of a child’s social and emotional development.

And if parents separate, this link between parental cooperation and father involvement is crucial. If dads remain involved in many ways, this typically suggests that the co-parenting relationship is going reasonably well, even if the romantic relationship has hit the rocks. Some parents may even hate each other’s guts yet share a commitment to parenting the children that is as solid as when they were a couple.

Impacts of fatherlessness

Understanding child development as a function of multiple relationships and networks also helps us understand fatherlessness better. It explains why children without fathers often develop in perfectly normal ways. Having a network of positive relationships can be harder without dad, but it’s not impossible.

Photo: David Werner. Creative Commons.

Research shows that children in fatherless families typically do worse academically and in emotional and social development, compared with children in two-parent families. But many of those problems are caused by financial difficulties and continuing animosity between the parents.

This way of looking at parenting highlights that it’s a mistake to imagine that you can extract an essence of fathering – or, indeed, of mothering. There is no such essence, because both father-child and mother-child relationships are themselves a complex product of a wider range of relationships.

Too much focus on parenting classes

All of this should matter to policy makers as they try to support child development. Policy and practice run the risk of focussing simply on “training” mothers or fathers. This approach is based on the mistaken view that there is some sort of mechanistic relationship between parental skill and children’s outcomes.

My research has involved speaking to parents from very different circumstances and backgrounds. Most are more than “good enough” parents. Many feel a need for help in what they do, but that does not mean they need to take a class to learn how to do it.

“Policy should concentrate on ensuring that the networks vital to parents are aiding rather than impairing their child-rearing.”

Advice for policy makers

 So where does research suggest policy should focus? It should concentrate on ensuring that parents’ vital networks are aiding rather than impairing their child-rearing. So it is important to ensure that employment, the law, education, and medical and social services all strengthen the relationships in which children and their parents function. Many of these services have been slow to recognise the importance of supporting fatherhood – for example, by providing leave from work or access to help when a child is ill or after a relationship breaks down.

The research also suggests that policy should support good parental relationships, helping parents when their relationship breaks down and requiring them to co-parent their children even when the romantic relationship has ended.

What should fathers do?

The message for fathers is to ensure that they maintain the network of family and other relationships in which their parenting sits. Too many men naïvely hand the maintenance of those relationships to their partners. Then, they are surprised to find that, in separation, they have lost their network when they most need it, leaving them – and the children – isolated and impoverishing the parenting that they can offer.

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On the basis of this finding, the researchers recommend “early interventions to partners of depressed mothers that empower fathers, address their unique importance to child and family, and teach fathers how to parent sensitively at different ages.” The researchers suggest such things as videos showing sensitive fathering in action.

Starting with a large sample of 1,983 women recruited just after the birth of a baby, the study selected one group of women with high depression scores at six months and one group with low depression scores. From this group, some were surveyed again at nine months, and some of those mothers were visited. Finally, home visits were organised five years and three months later. By this stage, 156 families were participating.

All the families were educated and financially secure, both parents were in good physical health, the parents were living together, the fathers were not clinically depressed and neither parent suffered from acute anxiety.

During the first year and at six years, the mother’s mental health was measured. At six years, during a four-hour home visit when both parents were at home, researchers measured mother-child and father-child interactions, as well as how all three functioned together. The researchers looked at:

• Parental sensitivity – acknowledging, gaze, vocalisation, support, affectionate touch, etc.
• Parental intrusiveness – forcing, criticism, overriding parenting, etc.
• Child social engagement – attention, affection, vocalisation, creative play, etc.
• Group interaction – cooperation/competition, avoidance/involvement, autonomy/intrusiveness, mutual gaze, symbolic play, etc.
• Family cohesion – warmth/involvement/fluidity/affectionate versus constraint/interruption/disharmony/parents’ persistent instruction.

Two main findings emerged.

First, when mothers were continuously depressed for six years, not only did their own parental sensitivity suffer, but so did the fathers’. This finding corresponds with earlier research showing mutual influences between mother-child and father-child relationships. It may be more difficult for fathers to parent while also dealing with a depressed partner. It may also be that fathers learn from mothers to a certain extent and so may be influenced by a depressed mother’s compromised parenting.

Second, chronic depression on the part of the mother was associated with family processes that were less harmonious and less collaborative and allowed for less autonomy – but only if the father also showed insensitive and more intrusive parenting. When fathers were sensitive parents, the mother’s depression did not predict low family harmony.

Arguing in favour of a family approach, rather than the usual focus on the mother-child relationship, the researchers say:

“Throughout human history and across cultural communities, family, which is the interface of familiarity and affiliation, has defined the most solid cultural institution that enhances survival, transmits values, facilitates adaptation, and supports children’s cognitive and social-emotional development through participation in multiple daily relationships with parents and siblings and observation of the relations between close others. Extant research has shown that a cohesive, warm, and harmonious family process, which is characterized by cooperation among members, individual autonomy, and low intrusiveness and rigidity, predicts a host of positive child outcomes, including social competence, lower externalizing and internalizing symptoms, reduced physiological stress, and positive emotional expression and emotion regulation.”

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Schneider studied data from the large Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which has followed the lives of 5,000 families in 20 American cities since 1998.

Studies like this show that family services should pay careful attention to the family relationships surrounding the disadvantaged children in their care, so that they understand how such relationships are changing.

Schneider found that after biological parents move in together, the mother’s likelihood of:

• Spanking frequently (an indicator of abuse) falls by 40%
• Using physical force frequently falls by 42%
• Using psychological aggression frequently falls by 37%
• Physically neglecting the child falls by 28%
• Exposing the child to adult substance abuse, violence and crime falls by 33%

Conversely, when mothers become single, the likelihood of these things rises. Risk of:

• Spanking frequently increases by 43%
• Physical neglect increases by 36%
• Exposure to adult substance abuse, violence and crime increases by 60%
• Involvement with Child Protective Services increases

The changes linked to a transition from cohabitation to marriage are much smaller. There is no significant change in the likelihood of abuse, though the chances of neglect fall by over one third. Perhaps this is because marriage may just confirm an already established pattern of collaborative parenting.

Compared to beginning to cohabit with a biological father, the impact of starting to cohabit with a stepfather is much smaller. There are no significant changes in abuse or neglect. But when the mother marries the stepfather, the likelihood of neglect falls more than 50%.

Such changes are commonly thought to be explained by changes in economic circumstances, but the analysis did not show correlations of this kind. Perhaps the nature of the relationship transition is more significant.

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Interviews obtained from 2,764 fathers in the US in 2002-10 through the National Survey of Family Growth were analysed by Dr Laura D. Lindberg and colleagues.

Men who reported a mistimed pregnancy were more likely to be non-resident fathers; and among non-resident fathers, those who reported a mistimed pregnancy visited their children less often (especially their daughters). But even among resident fathers, those who reported a mistimed pregnancy interacted less with their children.

Both resident and non-resident fathers who report a mistimed pregnancy were likely to rate their parenting more negatively.

Although the number of fathers in the sample who reported unwanted pregnancies was too small to be able to draw statistically significant conclusions, the associations were similar to the associations with mistimed pregnancies.

See more information about mistimed and unwanted pregnancies and other related studies on the consequences of unintended childbearing.

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