{"id":8154,"date":"2019-03-22T15:09:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T15:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/?p=8154"},"modified":"2024-05-11T22:33:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T21:33:33","slug":"fatherhood-neuroscience-biology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/fatherhood-neuroscience-biology\/","title":{"rendered":"Neuroscience shows that fatherhood is similar to motherhood, particularly when fathers care more"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Research into the neuroscience and biology of fatherhood has concluded that the idea that women are \u201cprimary caregivers\u201d, solely responsible for nurture and care, limits our understanding of human caregiving and child development.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Examining the biology and neurobiology of fatherhood, neuroscience researchers Eyal Abraham and Ruth Feldman<\/a> have concluded that the idea of women as \u201cprimary caregivers\u201d, solely responsible for nurture and care\u2014a \u201cmatricentric\u201d view that\u2019s deeply rooted in cultures globally\u2014limits our understanding of human caregiving and child development.<\/p>\n

Scientific enquiry shows that caring fatherhood, and cooperative care between mothers and others, has played a key role in the survival of the human race, enabling the long and substantial investment required to raise newborns to adulthood, and also enabling shorter birth intervals. Humans would not have emerged as a dominant species if active fatherhood had not emerged.<\/p>\n

Anthropologists have observed that human babies, beginning at birth, are typically surrounded with and carried by group members other than the biological mother. Another key observation from anthropology is that human parenting varies across cultures. Sometimes fatherhood is more about active caring, and sometimes it is less so. For example, when there are large family groups with many women present, the contribution that men make to caring tends to be more limited.<\/p>\n

With a view to evolutionary history, Feldman and Abraham argue: \u201cIf males have played an essential, albeit flexible and variable role in human parenting across human evolution by reducing Homo females\u2019 reproductive costs, their physiological systems have evolved by selective pressures to respond to committed fathering and to provide adequate and sensitive care to their infants.\u201d They argue that neural circuits and hormonal biology have developed in all humans such that\u2014with practice, attunement and social experiences\u2014all humans can provide nurturing care, irrespective of gender. At the same time, these attributes have transformed humans into a uniquely collaborative hyper-social species.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Table of Contents<\/p>\nToggle<\/span><\/path><\/svg><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n