The Impact of Fatherhood on Men’s Health and Development

Abstract

Fatherhood has a direct and substantial impact on men’s physical, mental and social health, and sense of paternal generativity over their life course. This chapter, the second of a pair in this volume, explores the bidirectional impact of fatherhood on men’s health in the perinatal period. It pulls together a scattered fatherhood literature and articulates six broad pathways by which fatherhood could potentially impact on men’s health and development, both positively and negatively. This systematic exploration represents a new focus for the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) field, especially in addressing the perinatal time period, a time not usually thought of as impacting on men’s health. This chapter attempts to establish a firmer scientific knowledge base and rationale to support new, targeted perinatal fatherhood health programs, policies, and research. Hopefully, these will also further contribute to the growing efforts to expand men’s and women’s parental gender role expectations and equity, and enhance the parenting health and men’s health movements. Similar to the dual orientation of the women’s preconception health initiatives, earlier, healthier, and more actively engaged fatherhood should lead to both improved reproductive and infant health outcomes and men’s own improved health across the life course.

Quality of Life instruments and their psychometric properties for use in parents during pregnancy and the postpartum period: a systematic scoping review

“…Specifically, we lack evidence on the identified instruments’ responsiveness and reliability, which give information on the repeatability and ability to detect changes between timepoints and groups [ 5 , 13 ]. Parental QoL and health status change throughout pregnancy and the first year postpartum [ 18 – 21 , 23 , 29 , 113 ]. Therefore, evidence on the responsiveness and reliability of QoL instruments for this target group is needed.…”

“…Consequently, evidence on appropriate and useful QoL instruments for fathers in the pregnant and postpartum period is nearly non-existent to researchers. During the pregnancy and postpartum period, fathers experience health challenges relevant for their QoL status [ 23 , 29 ]. To gain useful and believable knowledge on fathers’ QoL in this crucial period of life, we need to use validated instruments that are appropriate to this target group [ 5 ].…”

“…Furthermore, most literature reviews on QoL in the pregnant and postpartum period focus on the maternal population only [ 11 , 12 , 19 – 22 ]. Health care research on men’s transition to fatherhood [ 23 – 29 ] shows that this period affects their mental health and emotional wellbeing, the need for support and the fatherhood identity. These results support the need to include the paternal aspects of QoL during this period of life, and in turn, instruments that are validated and reliable in both fathers as well as mothers.…”

Review article: Parenting leaves, workplace characteristics, male health, and the pandemic: Currents in policy-related fatherhood research in higher income countries

“…Much as Criado-Perez (2019) has highlighted the data bias against women in many situations, it can be said that when it comes to the connections between male health and fatherhood, the bias is perhaps reversed. It is only very recently that research has begun to consider how fatherhood impacts on men's own physical and mental health and development (Kotelchuck, 2022b). There is also growing evidence of men's biologic adaptation to fatherhood (e.g.…”

“…One current of research documents that father involvement in the pregnancy and birthing period is associated with many positive outcomes (Kotelchuck 2022a;2022b). Indeed, a body of research finds a correlation between father involvement during pregnancy and a range of positive outcomes such as mothers receiving prenatal care, smoking reduction in pregnancy, reduced infant morbidities and continued paternal involvement (see Yogman & Eppel, 2022).…”