Exploring the transition into fatherhood: behavioral, hormonal, and neural underpinnings of responses to infant crying

Abstract

<p>In the present hypothesis generating study, behavioral and neural responses to infant crying, as well as paternal hormone levels, were measured in both the prenatal and early postnatal period. Using a longitudinal design, we investigated parental sensitivity, handgrip force, and neural activation in response to infant crying sounds, in addition to testosterone baseline levels, in 25 first-time fathers. We describe the extent to which these aspects of paternal care are related across the perinatal period. The current exploratory study adds to the understudied field of early paternal care by making recommendations, and proposing hypotheses for future studies.</p>

The roots of paternal depression: Experienced and nonexperienced trauma or Folie a Deux?

“…In these models it is argued that (a) the father represents a distinct system in reaction to the pregnancy and to the newborn (Cabrera, 2020) while interacting with all other attachment figures around the newborn and infant (Bretherton, 2010) (d) the transition to fatherhood corresponds to chronosystems over time as the environments such as micro-, macro-, meso-, and exosystems, surrounding the father change in line with life course events and developmental transitions (for a detailed description see: (Volling et al, 2019). These models provide a very large scale of potential impacts on the future father and include neurochemical alterations with bidirectional effects between the ecoenvironments of the father his behavioral reactions and adaptation on one hand, as well as his biochemical adjustments on the other (Dijk et al, 2020).…”