Dimensions Of Changing Fatherhood

Dimensions Of Changing Fatherhood

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So what other benefits does fatherhood bring with it? A s you roll out of bed for the umpteenth time in one night, you may yearn for the zen of your childless years, but research has found that fathers tend to be markedly less likely to develop stress-related conditions. A long term study by America's National Institute of Mental Health discovered that fathers who had positive relationships with their children had increased psychological well-being.

Y oung men are frequently lambasted for being reckless, self-obsessed and self-absorbed. In fact, only recently, young white men were even labelled ' the most derided social group in Britain ' for exhibiting these qualities. But get a couple of babies under your belt and all that could change, according to research by The Minnesota Fatherhood Initiative.

Multiple studies have discovered that building a family and creating bonds with your children is one of the most effective natural anti-depressants there is. In these species, paternal care often involves the same behaviors as maternal care, with the exception of nursing. But how does fatherhood change a man's brain?

Science has only recently delved into the neural and hormonal mechanisms of paternal care, but so far the evidence suggests that mothers' and fathers' brains use a similar neural circuitry when taking care of their children. Moms and dads also undergo similar hormonal changes that are linked to their brain and behavior changes. Taking care of a child reshapes a dad's brain, causing it to show the same patterns of cognitive and emotional engagement that are seen in moms.

In one recent study , researchers looked at brain activity in 89 new parents as they watched videos, including some that featured the parents' own children. The study examined mothers who were their children's primary caregivers, fathers who helped with childcare and gay fathers who raised a child without a woman in the picture. All three groups of parents showed activation of brain networks linked to emotional processing and social understanding, according to the findings published May 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In particular, fathers who were their children's primary caregivers showed the kind of activation in emotional processing seen mostly in primary caregiver moms. The results suggest there's a parenting brain network common to both sexes. Pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding all cause hormonal changes in mothers. However, researchers have found that men also undergo hormonal changes when they become fathers. Studies in animals and people show that new fathers experience an increase in the hormones estrogen, oxytocin, prolactin and glucocorticoids, according to a recent review of studies by psychologist Elizabeth Gould and colleagues from Princeton University.

Our Key Physical Differences ]. Contact with the mother and children seem to induce the hormonal changes in dads, the researchers said.

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Protectiveness was moderately stable, similar to stability in anxiety symptoms, whereas Authoritarianism showed lower stability than all of the other scales tested, although still in the lower moderate stability range. Comparing our observed stability correlation for warmth. The authoritarianism and protectiveness concepts from PBI are less easily compared to the concepts in these two other studies [ 11 , 12 ], but concepts associated with use of dominance and supervision tended to produce lower stability correlations than warmth in both studies.

These estimates and stability correlations for older children from our study and other studies [ 11 , 12 ] appear high compared to stability data reported in the meta-analysis by Holden and Miller [ 4 ]. However, in their meta-analysis, the dominance of observational studies that focus on more specific parenting behavior related to younger children can explain this difference. Previous studies of parenting stability have varied considerably in levels of conceptualization, methods of investigation and child age [ 4 , 10 , 11 , 15 ].

However, differences in stability between parenting aspects were rarely addressed directly in discussions of stability, although such variation were often reported in the empirical results. This leaves warmth as the most stable parenting dimension in our study relatively, whereas protectiveness and authoritarianism can best be characterized as high and low within the moderately stable range.

This is consistent with our individual-level analyses, which showed that the observed stability correlations concealed considerable instability in protectiveness and especially in the authoritarianism dimension. Considering the combined influence on parenting of parent, child and contextual factors with quite different stability, variation in stability between parenting dimensions may reflect different influences from stable and fluctuating factors [ 4 ]. Groups of parents with different contextual conditions, parent or child characteristics, may thus show corresponding differences in parenting stability.

Community parents in Norway should be representative of parenting in a quite safe and advantageous context with relatively low prevalence of non-ordinary conditions. Instability in warmth was also associated to lower scores for agreeableness and openness as personality traits, and colder previous generation maternal relationship.

This split stability pattern between a majority and a dysfunctional minority is strikingly similar to that of depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms are known for their fluctuations and recurrences in vulnerable subgroups in the population [ 33 ].

The surprising life benefits of becoming a father

A less-clear split pattern of instability associated with high protectiveness scores was found, suggesting 'inconsistent overprotection'. No other parent or child variables were predictive of protectiveness instability. Rather than being observed only in a sub-group, some instability in authoritarianism was widespread.

Taken together, these results raise the question of whether child or contextual factors not evaluated here may identify subgroups of instability for protectiveness or authoritarianism. Some of the observed stability of authoritarianism and, to some degree, protectiveness may be due to measurement errors indicated by reduced internal consistency. However, the stability is too low to be accounted for only by error. Furthermore, alpha for these two scales is deflated by a low number of items.

Still, the conclusions must be treated with some caution due to the wide confidence intervals of the true stability estimates. The few differences between fathers and mothers should probably be interpreted in relation to contemporary cultural trends in Norway that favor gender equality and fathers are highly involved in daily child care and -rearing [ 34 ]. The cultural values of gender equality may influence how parents report on their parenting. However, the relatively broad parenting dimensions may not capture more subtle gender differences in parenting.

The instability in authoritarianism may suggest influence from rather common but fluctuating factors, such as parental challenges arising from disputes over rules and privileges. This is consistent with the lack of associations between stability and fixed parental or child factors.

An interpretation related to local cultural attitudes disfavoring authoritarianism in Norway [ 35 ] is also possible. These may leave authoritarian strategies as an underreported occasional practice rather than a stable parenting style among the majority of parents. Finally PBI Authoritarianism scale may be too sensitive to ordinary aspects of parenting authoritarianism, and less sensitive to more clinical important dysfunctional aspects. Examining the distribution of individual-level stability added important nuances to the stability characteristics beyond the information provided by stability correlations.

The combined picture produced by rates of 'changed', 'uncertain change' and 'no change' in individual-level stability could reveal whether instability is widespread or only present in a minority group. The distribution of individual change can also describe instability in terms that are more easily related to clinical practice and intervention research by directly stating, related to chosen criteria, how common changes might occur. A cold relationship, especially in combination with restrictiveness or harshness, has long been considered a pathogenic parenting factor [ 36 ].

However, more recent research suggests that inconsistency in parenting, especially "love inconsistency" [ 37 ] is a more potent pathogenic factor than stable cold or authoritarian parenting [ 38 , 39 ]. Related to anti-social behavior in children, the importance of inconsistency was raised early [ 40 ] Our study shows an association between instability and cold parenting, and suggests that there is a danger of overlooking inconsistency of both parental warmth and protectiveness in assessing these dimensions unless they are evaluated across time.

Furthermore, occurrences of authoritarian parenting on single occasions will be a weak clinical indicator because fluctuations are common in this dimension. Again, assessment over time will provide a better clinical picture. Regarding parenting interventions targeting warmth and adequate use of authority, these stability results imply that long-term stabilization and consistency of improvement should be assured.

Furthermore there is a need for differentiation between inconsistency and inadequate levels when addressing parenting factors as risks. The primary strength of this study was the comparison of results across different indicators of stability, which expands the traditional focus on group stability correlations with true stability estimates and individual-level stability characteristics. Another strength was that several dimensions of parenting were compared and evaluated in reference to other psychological characteristics.

Finally, regarding instability predictors, only replications across T1 and T2 were considered reliable. The primary weakness was that a larger sample would have allowed for more accurate estimates and reduced confidence intervals, especially for true stability estimates [ 17 ]. The age range of children in this study does not allow generalizations to be made about younger children or older adolescents. The use of self-reports on parenting could have resulted in some overestimation of stability. Thus, replication of the findings using other informants could prove interesting.

However, Krampen [ 12 ] found higher stability in parenting with reports from teenage child informants than they did with in parent self-reports, showing that self-reports do not necessarily produce the highest stability indications. Wide confidence intervals for the true stability estimates in SEM weaken the basis for strong conclusions, although these estimates lead to the same conclusions as those reached based on observed stability correlations and individual-level change. Comparison of observed stability is complicated by the differences in internal consistency, suggesting a different influence from measurement error, especially for the authoritarianism scale.

Some of these differences are related the low number of scale items, which tend to deflate alpha [ 32 ] although average item intercorrelations are rather similar for the PBI-PCh and the three included NEO-PI scales. The three parenting dimensions varied considerably in their stability across nine months among parents of older children.

Although highly stable among the majority, change in warmth was observed in a subgroup of parents, resulting in lower stability than personality traits. In comparison, protectiveness was moderately stable, and authoritarianism appeared as the least stable dimension, although still in the lower moderate range.

Thus, true fluctuations in self-reported parenting dimensions must be considered quite possible across months, even in ordinary samples, although the degree of change may depend on the parenting dimension and the selected population. Even when using the PBI, which is based on parenting concepts approaching a trait level of aggregation, and assessing parenting over a relatively short time-span of nine months, none of the three parenting dimensions approached the stability level of personality traits.

Rather, the parenting dimensions showed stability characteristics more similar to emotional symptoms like anxiety and depression, and even less stable. Specifying influences of stability and change on each parenting aspect may be necessary to improve our understanding and ability to target parenting effectively in interventions.

It is also important to bear in mind that although consistent warmth is optimal, protection and authority in parenting rather requires flexibility related to changes in child and contextual challenges. Adequate parenting related to these dimensions may require that parents pursue a dynamic rather than fixed balance between safety and expansion and between guidance and autonomy [ 4 ]. TR conceived and planned the study, conducted literature review, data collection and data analysis, composed the initial draft of the manuscript and responded to reviewer revisions.

JW contributed in writing the manuscript, especially the introduction and discussion. TSBN contributed to the selection of instruments, and to the interpretation and presentation of the study in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors would like to thank the many schools for assisting in recruiting participants and distributing questionnaires. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.

Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. Published online May Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Received Jan 20; Accepted May This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.

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Results Based on 1 stability correlations, 2 true stability estimates from structural equation modeling SEM and 3 distribution of individual-level change, Warmth appeared rather stable, although not as stable as personality traits. Conclusions True instability with all three self-reported parenting dimensions can occur across nine months in a community sample related to older children , but it may occur with varying degrees among dimensions and subpopulations. Background Parenting is a complex aggregation of everyday parental behaviors, cognitions, emotions, attitudes and values under multiple influences, influenced by transactions across time between parental, child and contextual factors [ 1 - 3 ].

Conceptualization and Measurement of Parenting Dimensions Conceptualizations of parenting may focus on specific daily parenting behaviors or parenting characteristics aggregated across time. The Phenomenon of Stability, Time-frames and Stability Indicators Bugental, Johnston, New and Silvester [ 16 ] called for greater attention to the stability of psychological characteristics over and beyond the commonly evaluated test-retest reliability of instruments used to measure those characteristics.

Observed group stability Stability correlations are the usual method of evaluating group distribution stability or, more precisely, differential continuity.

5 Ways Fatherhood Changes a Man's Brain

True stability True stability is different from observed stability and instrument test-retest reliability. Comparative framework A less sophisticated but practically useful alternative to evaluate true stability, is the comparison of the observed stability of a given instrument to that of an instrument chosen as a benchmark [ 17 ]. Individual-level stability Stability correlations do not inform about the size or probability of individual change and do not reflect differences in individual-level change.

Aims The primary aims of this study were 1 to evaluate the stability characteristics of the three parenting dimensions warmth, protectiveness and authoritarianism across nine months related to older children as expressed by a stability correlations, b true stability estimates and c the distribution of individual change, 2 to compare these stability characteristics to those of parental personality traits and emotional symptoms, 3 to examine associations between parenting instability and parents' gender, age, personality traits, previous generation parenting, parenting experience and emotional symptoms anxiety and depression to illuminate possible stability predictors and characteristics of stability subgroups.

Methods Sample and Procedure Parents were invited for Wave 1 from 20 randomly selected public schools in two counties. Instruments Current parenting and previous generation parenting were measured in this study using Kendler's modification of the Parental Bonding Instrument PBI [ 7 ]. Statistics A comparison of the sampling groups in an unconditional random-effect regression effect model did not reveal significant sampling site contributions. Table 1 True and observed stability indicators across 9 months T1-T2 and internal consistency for current parenting, personality traits and emotional symptoms.

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Table 2 Differences in stability, compared pairwise between current parenting dimensions columns and personality traits or emotional symptoms rows. Comparative Framework Personality traits had been chosen to represent high stability in the comparative framework.

Supplementary analyses Mothers reported significantly higher Warmth than fathers at both T1 and T2 by. Discussion The three self-reported parenting dimensions exhibited different levels and patterns of stability over nine months in parents of older children 7 to 15 years. Implications for clinical and research application A cold relationship, especially in combination with restrictiveness or harshness, has long been considered a pathogenic parenting factor [ 36 ]. Strengths and Limitations The primary strength of this study was the comparison of results across different indicators of stability, which expands the traditional focus on group stability correlations with true stability estimates and individual-level stability characteristics.

Conclusions The three parenting dimensions varied considerably in their stability across nine months among parents of older children. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors' contributions TR conceived and planned the study, conducted literature review, data collection and data analysis, composed the initial draft of the manuscript and responded to reviewer revisions.

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the many schools for assisting in recruiting participants and distributing questionnaires. The transactional model of development: How children and contexts shape each other. American Psychological Association; The 'effects' of parenting reconsidered: Findings, challenges, and applications.

J Child Psychol Psychiatry. Developmental psychopathology, Vol 3: Risk, disorder, and adaptation. The multiple determinants of parenting; pp. A meta-analysis of the similarity in parents' child rearing. Parenting style as context: Six Dimensions of Parenting: A parental bonding instrument.

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