• It is important for fathers to begin bonding with their baby during pregnancy; singing, reading, and talking to their baby can support this early bond.
• Fathers can also talk with their partner and trusted others about their hopes and concerns for their baby during pregnancy as a way to prepare for early parenting.
• During pregnancy, fathers are encouraged to connect with other expectant or new fathers to begin building a parenting support network.

Key takeaways for healthcare and social services programs 

Make pregnancy spaces father friendly 

• Encourage fathers to attend obstetrics and ultrasound appointments, and provide a welcoming space for addressing fathers directly, asking if they have questions or concerns, and supporting their involvement in the pregnancy process.
• Provide supportive spaces and programs for fathers to connect with each other and learn about topics related to pregnancy and early infant care.
• Include pictures of fathers and infants in obstetrics and pediatrics offices and reading material that may appeal to men in waiting rooms.

Talk with fathers directly about their past and present experiences

• Ask fathers about their own experiences with the pregnancy and their hopes and concerns for their infant.
• Include fathers in early intervention programs beginning at intake and highlight fathers’ importance for the health and well-being of their infant.
• Screen expectant fathers (and mothers) for Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders, past maltreatment and trauma histories, and current exposure to adversity, and connect them with mental health services as needed.

Key takeaways for policymakers 

• Create systems that coordinate and connect fathering programs, such as state-level fatherhood commissions.
• Require early intervention programs to include fathers whenever possible as a central component of interventions rather than a suggested add-on service to families.
• Create programs and services that support fathers in bonding with their babies during the perinatal period, such as establishing ‘fatherhood navigators’ at hospitals that support fathers during prenatal visits, labor and delivery, and with post-natal infant care.

While fathers are increasingly expected to be actively involved in the pregnancy and post-natal care of their newborn, social narratives have not kept pace with these expectations.

Prenatal emotional bonds are a foundation for healthy parent-child relationships

Expecting and preparing for a baby is a time of excitement and joy for many parents. In addition to stocking up on diapers and onesies, parents-to-be are also preparing psychologically for the birth of their new baby (Dayton et al., 2020). The prenatal emotional bond parents form with their baby is essential and powerful – it prepares them to care for their newborn (Raphael-Leff, 2005).

In turn, early sensitive parenting – feeding, bathing, changing, holding, and soothing the baby – sets the stage for a strong and enduring parent-child relationship. For fathers, early infant care is associated with feelings of parenting competence (Dayton et al., 2015), and thereby supports their growing bond with their baby.

Prenatal bonding is often different for mothers and fathers

For the person carrying the baby (typically the mother), the prenatal emotional bond with the infant is supported by the biology of pregnancy – hormonal changes, the baby’s movements inside her (“quickening”), and a growing baby bump all contribute to her emotional connection with her baby.

Her growing body also alerts the outside world that she is expecting a baby and, across cultures, many social practices acknowledge, honor, and support her mothering role. The baby bump may compel passengers on the bus to give up their seat, accommodates nearby parking at the grocery store, and can inspire smiles and kind words from strangers.

In contrast, the parent who is not carrying the baby (the father or the mother’s partner) is an external observer of the baby’s prenatal growth. Expectant fathers also undergo prenatal hormonal and physiological changes that support post-natal parenting behaviors (Saxbe et al., 2017), but because these changes are not visible to others, expectant men experience fewer social acknowledgements of their status as fathers-to-be than do expectant women.

Photo: Amina Filkins. Pexels.

Prenatal bonding is also a slower process for fathers than it is for mothers. A father’s prenatal bond with his baby tends to increase as the pregnancy progresses (Habib & Lancaster, 2010) and is influenced by his own mental health (e.g., depression, anxiety; Cameron et al., 2016) and by his relationship with the mother of his baby (Ahlqvist-Björkroth et al., 2016).

Dispelling misconceptions about the importance of fathers’ early involvement

However, when expectant fathers are given time and space to talk, they have a lot to say! In addition to feelings of excitement and pride, fathers describe their growing feelings of responsibility – not just for the immediate post-natal period, but also for the care their child will need throughout life.

However, while fathers are increasingly expected to be actively involved in the pregnancy and post-natal care of their newborn, social narratives have not kept pace with these expectations. Therefore, fathers may wrongly believe that their most important parenting role does not begin until their children are older (Dayton et al., 2016). Notably, fathers who believe strongly in the importance of early fathering for the health and well-being of young children are also more likely to feel a strong emotional bond with their infant prenatally (Dayton et al., 2019), and may therefore be more prepared for post-natal infant care.

Fathers’ involvement improves babies’ development

The research is clear: When fathers are involved in the lives of their babies beginning in pregnancy, healthy outcomes for their babies are improved – prenatal, birth, and newborn health outcomes are better and per-infant health care costs are reduced (Alio et al., 2010; Salihu et al., 2014). For mothers and fathers in areas of the United States like Detroit, where maternal and infant morbidity and mortality rates constitute a public health crisis, fathers’ involvement can reduce the negative effects of systemic factors such as institutional racism that are literally killing black mothers and babies.

So how do men bond with their babies and what can be done to support them? Research is beginning to shed light on the ways in which men form prenatal relationships with their babies and this work suggests some ways to help.

Encouraging fathers’ involvement supports father-infant bonding

Research has demonstrated that the quality of the prenatal father-infant relationship is related to the quality of the post-natal father-infant relationship (Vreeswijk et al., 2014). However, research also suggests that expectant fathers’ emotional connection to their infant begins somewhat later in pregnancy than it does with mothers (Ives, 2014) – likely due to the physiological and social differences they experience. Many men say they must rely on the mother as a gatekeeper (Draper, 2002), for example, to be invited to feel the baby’s movements in utero and to be notified of obstetrics visits. These experiences may create a sense of distance from the infant.

When fathers are involved during pregnancy, outcomes for infants improve.

Mothers can support the father-infant bond by encouraging fathers to be actively involved in the pregnancy. Fathers’ involvement can include talking and singing to their babies and attending prenatal medical appointments. They can also talk with the baby’s mother about important newborn care decisions, such as whether the baby will be breast- or bottle-fed (Dayton et al., 2019). In this way, fathers can care for and bond with their baby even before the baby is born.

Fathers can also feel closer to their baby by talking about them with others. Friends and family members can provide spaces for expectant fathers to talk about their hopes and dreams for their baby, as well as their worries and concerns.

Perhaps because mothers are still perceived as the “primary” parent in infancy and early childhood, many fathers connect with the women in their lives to support them during pregnancy and early parenting (Dayton et al., 2016). But when other fathers reach out to share pregnancy expectations and answer questions, expectant fathers describe feeling a deep sense of support and connection with them (Walsh et al., 2014). Programs that encourage men to develop parenting support systems with each other may have powerful effects on improving mental health and increasing feelings of parenting confidence.

Social systems should emphasize the importance of fathers’ role and services for expectant dads

Social systems also play a role. Within the health care system, fathers often feel ignored and report feeling unwelcome at obstetrics appointments and ultrasound scans (Widarsson et al., 2015). Yet when fathers are included and involved in these appointments, they feel more connected to their baby, and they often feel a surge of pride and motivation to be good fathers and partners to the baby’s mother (Walsh et al., 2014).

To support and encourage these feelings, medical personnel can involve fathers in medical appointments by including them in conversations about the medical status of the mother and baby, and by explicitly asking fathers if they have questions or concerns. In addition, by intentionally featuring pictures of fathers and infants in obstetrics and pediatric waiting rooms and displaying magazines that appeal to fathers, health care professionals can help fathers feel welcome in the space (Albuja et al., 2019).

Health care providers’ offices are often the first (and sometimes only) place where parental well-being can be assessed. Although stigma still exists that may prevent fathers from talking about their mental health, many fathers struggle with feelings of depression and anxiety as they prepare for the birth of their baby – just as many mothers do (Dayton et al., 2017).

Photo: Justin Thompson. Pexels.

Fathers may also find that past exposure to traumatic events influences their ability to bond with their baby during pregnancy (Dayton et al., 2019). Health care providers are encouraged to screen fathers (and mothers) for Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders, and to provide compassionate support and referrals to mental health services as needed (Walsh et al., 2020).

Within most social services systems, prenatal and early childhood intervention services are targeted almost exclusively to mothers. Despite increased efforts to also provide programs for fathers, services for dads are often designed and delivered as both optional and secondary to the central intervention with the mother.

This approach reinforces social narratives that fathers are less important than mothers during pregnancy and as parents to their young children. It also ignores growing evidence that interventions that target the co-parenting relationship, and therefore attend equally to both parents, yield positive effects on child outcomes (Hawkins et al., 2022).

Parenting programs should include fathers in early childhood interventions from the very beginning of the service delivery process. Ensuring that agencies are father friendly, in terms of office décor and a welcoming approach to fathers, for example, is also crucial.

Conclusions: Fathers’ involvement has a significant and enduring impact

When fathers are involved during pregnancy, outcomes for infants improve. Fathers form early, prenatal, relational bonds with their babies that support their parenting after the birth of their child. Improving services to expectant fathers, especially in communities where infant mortality and morbidity are high, can help the negative effects of racism, poverty, and violence on maternal and infant outcomes. Programs and policymakers can help support prenatal father-infant relationships by creating prenatal spaces that include fathers and by implementing early intervention programs for fathers, and by making sure dads are a part of existing programs.

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• Consider fathers’ health behaviors as well as mothers’,
• Assess and treat fathers’ mental health as well as mothers’,
• Treat family stress and attend to the couple relationship, and
• Provide access for fathers to family leave.

Much research focuses on how mothers-to-be influence babies’ health and development before and during pregnancy – touching on mothers’ environments, emotions, and behaviors. Mothers-to-be are often advised to alter their lifestyles accordingly.

Less attention is paid to fathers, but there is sufficient evidence to make a case for practice and policy to change in this regard.

This research review sets out seven ways fathers influence children’s development during pregnancy, providing a useful tool for planners of prenatal services and policies.

1. Epigenetic and genetic changes: Prior health behaviors

• Obesity is associated with epigenetic changes that predict restricted growth in childhood.
• Alcohol affects the sperm epigenome and is a risk factor for alcohol use and alcohol sensitivity in offspring.
• Fathers’ diabetes and fast-food consumption predict earlier births.

2. Epigenetic and genetic changes: Exposure to environmental toxins

• Exposure to workplace welding fumes is linked with higher prevalence of congenital abnormalities (Egyptian study).
• Fathers exposed to pesticides (e.g., nematocide, dibromochloropropane, ethylene dibromide) are more likely to have suboptimal sperm quality.

3. Epigenetic and genetic changes: Early life stress

• Children of fathers who survived the Holocaust and fathers with post-traumatic stress disorder show epigenetic differences, namely increased DNA methylation in a promoter region of the glucocorticoid receptor. These are linked with increased prevalence of psychiatric illness and reduced cortisol levels in the children.
• Studies of mothers have shown links between their exposure to disasters (e.g., natural disasters, terrorist attacks, COVID-19) and outcomes for their children. No such research exists for fathers but it would likely reveal similar links.

4. Neurobiological and hormonal changes

• First-time fathers with a higher prenatal testosterone level report less effective and positive parenting six months after the birth.
• First-time fathers with a higher prenatal oxytocin level endorse a more nurturing parenting philosophy after the child’s birth.

“This research review sets out seven ways fathers influence children’s development during pregnancy, providing a useful tool for planners of antenatal services and policies.”

5. Influences on expectant mothers’ health behaviors

• Alcohol use by an expectant father is linked to higher alcohol use by pregnant mothers (Ukrainian study).
• Expectant mothers engage more in prenatal health actions such as stopping smoking when their male partners do more caregiving (e.g., listening to baby’s heartbeat, purchasing items for baby, attending prenatal classes).

6. Influences on expectant mothers’ mental health

• A higher quality of couple relationship is associated with expectant mothers’ lower distress, which in turn is associated with more positive temperament of the baby (U.S. study).
• More relationship conflict correlates with greater incidences of medically complex births. Much research links prenatal stress in mothers to premature birth and low birth weight.
• Depression in expectant fathers correlates with depression in expectant mothers. Joint mental health symptoms in two parents prenatally predict the same symptoms in the parents 12 months after the birth, which in turn correlate with children’s executive function problems at 7-8 years (Finnish study).

7. Influences on mothers’ hormones

• A couple’s hormonal levels tend to synchronize and follow similar patterns. Lower testosterone levels in both expectant parents predict greater investment by the father in the parenting relationship after the birth.
• When cortisol levels are lower in both expectant parents, there is likely to be less conflict between them before birth and less depression on the part of the father after the birth.
• Hormonal changes in mothers can affect fetal development and children’s long-term social and emotional development.

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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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Governments struggle to support positive, engaged fatherhood. Macroeconomics and political science might help explain what’s delaying policy reform. 

Fatherhood is central to raising children well. That’s an overwhelming message from half a dozen of the world’s leading researchers who have contributed to the Child and Family Blog.

There is compelling evidence that positive, engaged fatherhood walks hand in hand with good child development. Indeed, we’ve known for over 30 years that positive fatherhood in the early years is one of the best predictors of a child’s later success, explains Charlie Lewis.

Barriers to fatherhood

Yet almost everywhere, fathers face high, stubborn barriers to looking after their children – at work, in public services, in law, and at home. The media often paints them as incompetent, absent and largely irrelevant at best. Governments offer little support to caring fatherhood.

Most worrying, the barriers are highest for dads on low incomes – those whose positive involvement can make most difference to their children’s development. These men can offer help to children that they may find nowhere else.

“The institutional barriers to fatherhood remain. They represent a substantial malfunctioning of child development policy.”

Low-income dads can stretch their children linguistically, asking ‘who, why, where, what’ questions, finds Natasha Cabrera’s research. Their rough and tumble play helps children to learn to read emotions and regulate their behaviours. Fatherhood can be vital for narrowing the gap between their children’s school readiness and that of better-off peers.

Child development policy fails low income fathers

Yet precisely these low-income fathers receive the least support in raising their young. They miss out on leave benefits that don’t apply to the casualised work of the poorly paid. Likewise, these benefits may be unavailable to struggling non-citizens, explains Philip Hwang, and low-income dads are often marginalised by public services.

Mothers on welfare are financially penalised if they cohabit with their child’s father, notes Ross Parke. The state’s message to the impoverished dad seems to be: ‘If you can’t pay, then don’t stay.’ In the long run, that can mean he’s not involved with his kids.

Meanwhile, policy largely ignores lessons from Nordic countries about the success of lengthy ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ leave arrangements for dads, as Margaret O’Brien details. And so the institutional barriers to fatherhood remain, suggesting a substantial malfunctioning of child development policy. ‘Policy should be brought into line with what we know and what we say,’ argues Michael Lamb.

Support for motherhood seems easier than support for fatherhood

It’s intriguing that these same governments seem able to design policies that support motherhood, such as leave and childcare packages for mothers staying in, and returning to, the work force. What explains their persistent failure to support positive, engaged fatherhood? What’s stopping governments from implementing change that experts recognise as good for children?

It’s a question that child development research should answer. But perhaps the skill base examining fatherhood issues – and possibly other child development questions – is too narrow. That’s because the solutions for implementing fatherhood policies may sit less in, for example, developmental psychology than in fields not usually associated with child development: political science and economics.

“Political scientists could explain the dynamics of political systems – in Nordic countries – which have been early adopters of enlightened fatherhood policies.”

There are plenty of behavioural economists looking at child development. Janet Currie at Princeton University, for example, has tested the cost effectiveness of cutting local pollution levels to improve children’s learning. Greg Duncan is testing whether children’s cognitive and behavioural development in disadvantaged families is improved by cutting poverty – giving their parents an extra $4,000 a year for the first 40 months.

Apply broader disciplines to child development research

But macroeconomics tends to stay clear of fatherhood. Political scientists are also rarely present in the research debate. But their insights might bridge the gulf between existing child development evidence and more widespread adoption of policies supporting positive fatherhood.

Without their research, one is left to speculate about what’s going wrong. It may be that governments see policies that support positive fatherhood as at odds with a key goal: keeping their economies well-supplied with affordable workers. This goal may be good for families, providing vital income. It’s also consistent with policies designed for mothers that increase their participation in the job market. But backing engaged fatherhood is more problematic.

When fathers identify more as carers, they may shift from their traditional focus as workers. They may, then, prefer to work less, behaving more like mothers, for whom wage labour competes with the rewards of engaged parent-child relationships. In economic terms, increased caring fatherhood could be seen as equivalent in impact to a constraint on the labour supply.

In short, governments, driven by strategies for high employment, may have little incentive to support policies that shift fathers’ focus closer to home. It might even be said that most dads are exactly where most governments want them to be – at work. And if they’re not, the main option that policy typically gives them is to look for work.

This is why we need to learn more from macroeconomics about the wider and longer-term economic gains and losses that spring from supporting caring fatherhood. Insights from political scientists are also required to explain the dynamics of the Nordic countries’ political systems which have been early adopters of enlightened fatherhood policies.

We need to understand what’s inspiring them and what’s holding up the rest of the world. Optimising child development demands a more thorough understanding of what might encourage governments to implement father-friendly policies.

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A holistic approach, replacing fragmented interventions, should support couple partnerships and how both parents relate to their children.

Today we have an opportunity, probably for the first time, to redesign family and public services in ways that will genuinely benefit families and maximise the impact on child development. You might think that’s already happening. It isn’t – at least not nearly enough.

We estimate, for example, that of thousands of parenting classes in the US, UK and many developed countries, 90 per cent are attended only by mothers. So factors crucial to child development – fathers and the parental couple relationship – are mostly left out, even though early interventions, including both parents, are known to prevent later problems.

How can we explain this extraordinary omission? It’s partly a legacy of failures in social science research to look beyond mother-child relationships. That’s now been rectified, but the problem has long been compounded by fragmented social services which spread help for families across many isolated departments and programs. Our challenge is to modernise systems to deliver services based on evidence.

Child development evidence

In the past 20 years, research has clearly identified two major determinants of early child development that social scientists previously ignored and that practitioners and policy makers have only begun to incorporate into public service delivery.

The first determinant is a key asset to children – their fathers. And here we mean fathers who are positively involved with their children. The second is an environment that is also vital for child development:  the quality of the relationship between their carers, who are usually their parents.

We now know that if we can support fathers and parenting partnerships – as well as the mother-child relationship – the future for children will be a great deal rosier.

Since the 1980s, research has produced a wealth of indisputable evidence demonstrating the positive contributions that fathers can – and do – make to children’s development and well-being. The research also shows that children benefit from the involvement of a second parental figure – and that person may not be the mother or father but the child’s grandparent, uncle, aunt, or a close family friend.

“The structures and delivery systems of most public services still largely reflect an erroneous view that the mother-child relationship is the only one that really matters.”

More recently, since the late 1990s, research has filled in the second part of the puzzle. We, and many other researchers, have shown that unresolved couple conflict – whether between intact or separated parental couples – is a risk factor for child development. We now know that the quality of the relationship between two parents makes a big difference in how children manage their lives.

If parents collaborate effectively and don’t undermine each other’s parenting, children do better – socially, emotionally, behaviourally and academically. They don’t become preoccupied with worry about parental tensions, which leaves them free to explore their own worlds and learn new things. In contrast, it undermines child development if parents cannot manage differences of opinion without aggression or moving into a silent, “we’re not talking to each other” pattern; they become anxious or fearful and find it difficult to concentrate on learning new things.

The challenge to family and public services

Fixing family and public services in the light of this evidence is challenging for two reasons. First, the structures and delivery systems of most public services still largely reflect an erroneous view that the mother-child relationship is the only one that really matters. Fathers are often excluded from programs.

Second, these systems, particularly in health and social services, are fragmented and involve many disconnected, “siloed” units. These rarely coordinate their attempts to be helpful, and sometimes work at cross-purposes. This fragmentation makes it difficult to deliver holistic interventions to support child development through children’s key relationships and the broader contexts in which they can thrive.

Photo: Shutterstock.

Family services commonly encompass numerous distinct interventions from siloed units that typically focus on mother and child, such as maternal and child health services, child support services or child mental health interventions. Our most vivid example of men being ignored by such services is based on visits we made to several Family Resource Centers in rural California.

We observed fathers driving their wives to appointments and sitting outside in the parking lot while mother and baby went in for their appointment. Those men could so easily have been involved, but they were not invited to appointments about their babies. As if mirroring this stance, the case files for those families included only the names of the mother and baby, but not the father.

Why is practice so slow to reform? Public services generally respond sluggishly to cultural change. One reason is that many social services agencies work with deeply troubled families, some with a history of violence. The staff, mostly women, may come to the conclusion that men are generally violent when, in fact, most men are not. Fathers can then be seen as liabilities for child development rather than assets in caring for children.

Compounding this problem, agency staff often tell us that they are not trained to work with both parents together. In anticipation of parents’ differing opinions, they hesitate to invite both parents in.

Reforming child development practice and policy

How might policy and practice change to promote healthy development that children need but often miss: fathers’ involvement and collaborative, supportive parental relationships?

For 20 years, we and our colleagues, Marsha Kline Pruett and Kyle Pruett, have pioneered an approach to parenting support through a 16-week course for groups of couples with clinically trained leaders. It includes both fathers and mothers and focusses on the relationship between them, not simply on dispensing advice about childrearing.

“We observed fathers driving their wives to appointments and sitting in the parking lot while mother and baby went in. Those men could so easily have been involved but were not invited.”

In the United States, the programme is known as Supporting Father Involvement, originally funded by the California Office of Child Abuse Prevention. In Britain, the program is called Parents as Partners, and it has been introduced in 20 cities, operated by Tavistock Relationships in conjunction with Family Action, funded currently by the UK Department for Work and Pensions.

Our research in the US and Britain shows that this combination – support that includes both parents and focuses on their relationship as partners and parents – is most effective in staving off declines in satisfaction within their relationship. It also reduces their symptoms of depression, anxiety, and parenting stress. These benefits help maximise positive child development outcomes. In contrast, fathers-only or mothers-only parenting classes continue to be characterised by a fall in couple satisfaction and poorer outcomes.

All of this makes sense. After all, we know that a good couple relationship often breeds success at work and is good for personal health. We now have evidence that it’s also good for the children.

Focus on prevention

We also need a better focus on prevention. Over the past 40 years, we have worked with well-functioning and troubled families, some wealthier and many poorer. Many parents and children in both groups have challenging difficulties in their relationships. We have found that interventions with groups of couples, using trained facilitators, can help parents or parent figures become more effective and satisfied as co-parents. When that happens, child development is enhanced. Their children’s behavior improves, along with the well-being of the whole family.

One of the lessons of our research is that it’s possible to take a preventive, early intervention approach to strengthening families and supporting child development, dealing with difficulties long before they become intractable. Early interventions have two benefits. First, families are likely to be experiencing less volatility or violence. Second, the parents are more often still together, so we can work with the whole family. The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which followed thousands of vulnerable US families in many cities, found that in 75 per cent of cases, the father is present around the birth and intends to stay involved. This, then, is when services should be supporting fathers, mothers and their relationships as partners – during pregnancy, childbirth, and well-baby visits.

The future looks brighter

It is easy to become downhearted looking at the continuing gulf between research findings on child development and current policy and practice. However, expectations are growing that public services will strategize better by integrating their interventions and focussing on outcomes rather than inputs.

The need to maximise child development grows ever stronger for 21st century economies where national success will depend on adaptable, psychologically healthy labour forces and families. These conditions offer a fair wind to policy makers and practitioners who have much to gain by avoiding the omissions of the past.

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Research has discredited many cultural beliefs about fathers and their roles in child development but these mistaken beliefs still shape modern family policy.

Many widely held cultural beliefs about fathers are wrong. Decades of research have proved that dads are not marginal, secondary, or dispensable in child development. Rather, the father-child relationship is of great importance. Dads’ care, as far as children are concerned, is not discretionary.

These findings require changes in policies that continue to reflect mistaken cultural beliefs – policies relating to employment, maternity care, poverty and family separation. Policy and practice should, instead, recognise and support father-child relationships and their beneficial impacts on child development.

We now know that young children bond with mothers and fathers similarly and that relationships with each parent matter a great deal to child development and long-term welfare.

Public rhetoric increasingly reflects these findings. But we’re not walking the talk.

Policy and practice, the workplace, family dynamics and the law often lag far behind. Child development suffers when relationships with fathers are undervalued. Millions of children are unnecessarily let down by institutions and parents themselves when it comes to fathering. We could avoid many of these failures.

New fathers and mothers are similarly able to support child development

Here’s what we know about fathers and about families. Both men and women share an intrinsic capacity to be good parents. Both are physiologically prepared for, and changed by, parenthood. New mothers and fathers are equivalently competent (or incompetent) at parenting. Any disparity in skills usually reflects women’s greater experience and opportunities to learn, rather than a biologically given capacity.

“We need to bring practice into line with rhetoric, to align what we do – regarding fatherhood – with what we know and what we say.”

There does not seem to be a distinctive and necessary paternal way of behaving that makes the father-child relationship qualitatively different from the relationship between mother and child. Mothers and fathers influence child development in the same (non-gendered) ways – they promote psychological adjustment when they are caring, loving, engaged, and authoritative. Boys need their fathers no more and no less than girls: there is now plentiful evidence that girls, too, fall behind when their fathers are absent, offer poor care, or are inaccessible.

Relationships: Attachment to both in the first year

Fathers become psychologically important early in their children’s lives by the middle of the first year, just as mothers do, and differences in the parents’ sensitivity influence the relationships. From then on, the quality of these relationships continues to be important for child development and throughout later life.

However, the security of attachment relationships is not fixed in early life. They can be improved, and they can also be damaged. There is ample evidence that relationship quality can change when children’s care and living experiences shift. These quality changes are closely linked to long-term child development.

Photo: Shutterstock.

Child Development: What children need from their fathers

We know what matters to children. Healthy child development depends overwhelmingly on qualities such as the parents’ affection, consistency, reliability, responsiveness, and emotional commitment. It also depends on the quality and character of the relationships between parents and their intimates, and on the availability of sufficient economic and social resources.

Once these factors have been taken into account, the particularities of family structure (for example, single parents/same-sex parents, non-biological parents) have little impact on children’s development. Indeed, since the 1980s, it has been well established that children and adolescents can adjust just as well in non-traditional settings as in traditional families.

For example, fathers can have a very positive effect on their children, whether or not they live with the children’s mothers. The critically important factor is ensuring that children experience dad as a reliable source of psychological support. So having an appropriate amount of quality father time is crucial.

Recommendations for child development policy and practice

A consequence of these findings is that policy makers, practitioners, and the public in general should understand better how to promote strong child development through support for father-child relationships. At the moment, they sometimes fail to act in children’s best interests. Research evidence makes an overwhelming case for:

• fully including fathers in preparation for birth and parenthood;
• alleviating family poverty;
• refashioning the workplace so that fathers of young children have the flexibility to combine their roles as earners and parents;
• recognising and supporting father’s parenting in non-traditional as well as traditional families, and;
• supporting post-separation arrangements that minimise parental conflict and maintain meaningful father-child relationships.

“Brief dinners and occasional weekend visits with dad are not broad enough or extensive enough to nurture father-child relationships after separation.”

Take employment, for example. We know that, with very young children, it’s important to minimise the length of separations from mum and dad and maximise the quality of interaction when children are with a parent. This is a gendered issue because, on average, fathers earn more than mothers do, so, with the family’s increased economic needs, there is extra pressure on dads to work longer hours. That can become a problem for their parenting. Such issues are far from resolved in many workplaces or by the parental leave system, so weakening investment in child development.

Evidence also highlights continuing failures to ensure that separated fathers spend sufficient quality time with their children. In a minority of cases, very limited contact may be appropriate because the relationship is poor or parental conflict is high. Generally, however, we know that post-divorce parenting plans which encourage regular participation by both parents are vital to building and maintaining the committed and meaningful parent-child relationships that children need. Brief dinners and occasional weekend visits with dad are not rich, broad, or extensive enough to nurture such relationships. In contrast, weekday and weekend daytime and night-time activities are important for child development at all ages.

As in the workplace, the legal, cultural and social supports for fathers’ contributions to child development are often not yet in place to make these arrangements the norm, even though most people would acknowledge their importance. We need to bring practice into line with rhetoric, to align what we do regarding fatherhood with what we know and what we say. Dads are crucial to children , just as mothers are. This truth should be reflected in what happens at work, in the home, in public services and in decision-making and supports around children after their parents split up. It often isn’t at the moment.

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How fathers influence child development

Fathers directly influence cognitive development, that is, how children learn. For example, children with more-educated fathers tend to do better in school tests. Fathers who talk more to their children have children with higher vocabularies. These children have more complex language skills.

Fathers influence children’s social and emotional development. The children of supportive fathers who engage with them in various activities, including play, are more likely to be socially competent. They are likely to have more positive friendships and be more able to control their emotions.

Fathers also indirectly influence child development. For example, they can improve the home environment through investment of time and money. They have more supportive relationships with their partners, which benefits their engagement with their children. Their relationship with the child’s mother influences children also. Conflict and stress in the relationship can harm development. Conversely, supportive team parenting (or “coparenting”) is associated with greater social and emotional skills in children.

Although fathers can and do provide the same supportive and emotional caregiving as mothers, on average they tend to care for children in different ways from mothers. For example, compared to mothers, they are more likely to tease their children. They are more likely to encourage them to take calculated risks and join in rough and tumble play. All of these things have been found to have a positive influence on child development. They need to be seen as an important part of the child’s care and development.

These comparisons are only tendencies, of course, and reflect social norms and personal preferences, not absolute differences. Many mothers engage in rough and tumble play, and many fathers provide emotional care. Both parents adapt their roles depending on their children’s needs. Research shows that a variety of caring activity is best for the child.

Why is fathers’ influence underestimated?

Traditionally, parenting research and practice has ignored fathers, neither considering their influence on child development and nor controlling for their influence when looking at the influence of mothers.

The study offers two possible explanations for these failings.

The first is the concept of a “primary” carer, referring to the relative quantity of time that mothers and fathers spend caring for children. If one parent is primary, then the other is “secondary”. If the father is not living at home, he can be considered “absent”, even if he is not. A parent who is secondary or absent is easy to overlook.

The primary caregiver idea is linked to the idea that attachment applies only to mothers and infants. In this perspective, the mother-child bond is “paramount” and above all other attachments. It is a short step to seeing other parents as just helpers or baby sitters, like other relatives.

Research has shown that the relative amount of time that mothers and fathers tend to spend caring for children is exaggerated in importance. The quality of the interaction is key.

The second concept that tends to push the influence of fathers to the edge of consideration is the ideas that they provide, rather than care. This leads to the conclusion that they do not spend enough time with their children and that their involvement does not affect children’s lives emotionally. Such a division of roles no longer holds true for a great many families. Also, even traditional fathers can relate to their children and influence their development.

The father’s influence should be considered in policy and practice to support children

Fathers are invested, both emotionally and financially, in their children’s lives. Their involvement is often an unresolved source of support for children, going beyond just providing and playing roles. Even if non-resident, they can contribute significant care and influence child development.

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Our findings identify seven barriers to engaging fathers in parenting support. Poor evaluation of programs prevents us identifying what works for families.

Overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates the unique and important role that fathers play in their children’s development. The effects are profound and wide-ranging, in terms of children’s biological, physiological, and psychological wellbeing, as well as in their behavioral, social, and educational outcomes throughout infancy, childhood, and adolescence, even into adulthood. Fathers make a difference when it comes to children’s survival, self-esteem, academic performance, emotional and behavioral problems, substance misuse, criminality and delinquency, peer relationships, sexual partnerships, and economic prospects, as well as their capacity for empathy and life satisfaction.

This evidence would seem to dictate that policy makers and practitioners should fashion programs to maximize benefits to children from their fathers. To do this effectively, they would evaluate programs to understand what works best. At the moment, there is a great deal of room for improvement in both program planning and evaluation. Most parenting programs focus solely on mothers — fathers are frequently sidelined. And even if policy makers and practitioners decided to broaden their approach, they would face difficulties because they often do not evaluate what works to take advantage of the “father factor”.

We know that it is more cost-effective to fund programs that support children and families early in life than to remedy problems later on. “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men,” as Frederick Douglass, an African American leader of the anti-slavery movement, so beautifully said. Our research into father exclusion suggests major opportunities worldwide, for improving the planning, construction and evaluation of policies to support children by leveraging the contribution that fathers can make.

“Around the world, most parenting programs sideline fathers, focusing only on mothers.  We have little robust knowledge of what works well to leverage the game changing ‘father factor’.”

Our thorough search of the literature found, world wide, 199 studies that presented evidence on fathers’ participation and impact in programs to support parents. The evidence on men, in their roles as fathers, was patchy, involving small samples and very different approaches, often making it impossible to draw conclusions on best practice. We found seven major barriers—cultural, institutional, professional, operational, content, resource, and policy biases—that work to marginalize fathers from the outset in the design of parenting programs.

As a result, we advise program planners to refocus parenting interventions so that they are relevant and attractive to co-parents. Institutions have to know how father-friendly they are in terms of policies, recruitment, support, and how well their parenting interventions respond to gender-related differences in parenting goals. It is also important that they know whether staff capabilities and attitudes toward parents tend to exclude fathers.

Programs need to examine how they collect data on “parents” — are the data, for example, disaggregated by sex? Do they identify co-parents among mixed groups of participants? Is the content of a program relevant to fathers as well as mothers? Does an organization have sufficient resources to audit current practices and implement change? In terms of policy, we recommend that policy makers ask themselves whether their strategy gives clear attention to gender and co-parenting issues.

We have found good examples of innovation in this field. For example, the Supporting Father Involvement program in the US focuses explicitly on fathers’ roles and co-parenting. Also in the US, Head Start supports the father-preschooler relationship, looking to improve child behavior, social skills and school readiness by increasing fathers’ engagement with their children and enhancing their support and child-rearing skills. In Niger, the program Ecole des Maris engages with fathers at the outset, recognizing that men are often the gate-keepers of access to maternal and child health.

In Turkey, the Mother-Child Education Foundation (ACEV) invites fathers to meet in men-only workshops to develop parenting skills, to find alternatives to harsh parenting, and to change gender dynamics around caregiving responsibilities for their children. The Australian Dads on Board program works on fatherhood with men who have attended behavioral-change programs because of their use of violence. Remarkably, Brazil’s Instituto Promundo program has demonstrated how men in dire circumstances in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas can turn away from domestic violence to engage in effective parenting and empathetic family life for the sake of their sons or daughters. The global fatherhood campaign led by MenCare provides further concrete examples regarding why and how engaging with fathers is effective for reducing violence and promoting family wellbeing and gender equity.

Such work raises intriguing possibilities. Young men are frequently on the front line of domestic violence, gang violence, and war. They soon become fathers, in contexts where violence, mental health, and social skills cascade from one generation to another. We know that first-time fatherhood can provide a turning point in the lives of many young men, who take this opportunity to reframe notions of masculinity. If these programs are successful in changing a disposition to violence in the home, could they be implemented in conflict zones with benefits for the wider community? Could promoting effective caregiving skills around parenthood to men open transformative and lasting means to turn away from violence and promote peace?

James Leckman, Rima Salah and I have edited a new book — Pathways to Peace — that examines the role families and early child development can play in peace building in many regions of the world. It has been promoted at the United Nations, to mark events such as the 20th anniversary of the UN International Year of the Family and the UN High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace.

We suggest that supporting fathers properly is not just about enhancing the lives of the some of the world’s most disadvantaged children. It is also about raising healthy, productive, and peaceful citizens, and, specifically, preventing the perpetuation of violence within and outside the home in order to heal the communities most afflicted by violence and gender inequality. Scientific work across cultures provides much evidence for this pathway to peace, regardless of the particular composition of the family: we strongly recommend engaging not just mothers but all caregivers, promoting a community of care on behalf of children.

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