Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 205, February 2019, Pages 195-201
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original Articles
Influence of Fathers' Early Parenting on the Development of Children Born Very Preterm and Full Term

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2018.09.073Get rights and content

Objectives

To examine factors associated with fathers' early parenting behaviors (including very preterm [VPT] birth, familial social risk, child sex, and child medical risk), and the relationship between fathers' early parenting behaviors and later child development.

Study design

Participants were 81 VPT (born <30 weeks of gestation) and 39 full-term father-child dyads. Parenting behaviors (sensitivity, structuring, nonintrusiveness, nonhostility) were assessed at 12 months of corrected age using the Emotional Availability Scales, with scores ranging from 1 (low) to 7 (high). At 24 months of corrected age, child cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional development were assessed. Results are presented as (regression coefficients; 95% CIs).

Results

There was little evidence that VPT birth, familial social risk, or child medical risk were associated with fathers' parenting behaviors. Fathers of girls tended to be more sensitive (0.42; 0.18, 0.65), less intrusive (0.36; 0.04, 0.70), and less hostile (0.26; 0.01, 0.50) compared with fathers of boys. Higher structuring was associated with more optimal cognitive (3.29; 1.25, 5.34), and language development (4.69; 2.26, 7.14). Higher sensitivity was associated with more optimal language development 3.35 (0.95, 5.75), and more intrusive behavior was associated with more externalizing symptoms (-1.68; -3.06, -0.31).

Conclusions

Early parenting did not differ between fathers with VPT and full-term children, but fathers' parenting did vary according to child sex. Fathers' early parenting was associated with future neurodevelopment, reinforcing the need to support fathers' parenting, and include fathers in early intervention programs.

Section snippets

Methods

Participants were part of the broader Victorian Infant Brain Study 2 cohort, a prospective longitudinal cohort of 149 VPT children born at <30 weeks of gestation (143 survivors) and a comparison group of 151 children born full-term (≥37 weeks of gestation or weighing ≥2500 g) recruited at birth from the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia between January 2011 and May 2014.22 Children with congenital abnormalities known to affect neurodevelopment or from non-English speaking households

Results

Characteristics of study participants and nonparticipants are presented in Table I. Fathers who completed the father-child interaction were slightly less likely to have children of higher medical risk (37% vs 50%, respectively) and to be of a higher social risk (43% vs 52% within the VPT group and 18% vs 29% within the full-term group, respectively) than those who did not complete the father-child interaction. There were no significant differences on child developmental outcomes for fathers who

Discussion

The current study found that fathers of 12-month-old VPT and full-term children exhibited similar parenting behaviors. Furthermore, fathers' parenting did not vary according to the family's social risk, or the child's medical risk. In contrast, fathers' parenting behaviors were associated with child sex, with fathers tending to be more sensitive, more structuring, less intrusive, and less hostile with daughters compared with sons. We also found that higher levels of fathers' sensitivity and

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    Supported by National Health and Medical Research Council (Center for Research Excellence in Newborn Medicine 1060733; project grants 1024516, 1028822; Career Development Fellowship 1108714 [to A.S.]; Senior Research Fellowship 1081288 [to P.A.]; Career Development Fellowship 1141354 [to J.C.]). Murdoch Children's Research Institute is supported by Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program. Funders had no involvements in study design; collection, analysis or interpretation of data; writing this article; or the decision to submit the article for publication. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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