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Literature in developmental psychology suggests that mothers and fathers both play unique and important roles in their children’s development. However, research investigating the unique contributions and psychological functioning of fathers of youth with developmental disabilities, and the role that fathers play in effective intervention, remains limited. Whereas evidence suggests that parent-mediated interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can lead to increased engagement from parents, and reduced stress and psychopathology commonly experienced by parents of youth with ASD, these interventions often do not specifically address potential benefits of paternal involvement. This systematic review aimed to understand how often/how commonly research on children with ASD examines the father’s role within the family, how often fathers are targeted directly during intervention efforts, and the impact of increased paternal involvement. This review suggests that fathers of children with ASD are not often included in research on children with ASD, in either their general involvement or in their inclusion in intervention. While studies generally suggest that these fathers may be less involved than mothers in childrearing practices, having both parents highly involved may improve the overall family system across many levels, and fathers may be equally as effective as mothers in implementing intervention strategies. Overall, this review suggests that while often overlooked, fathers of youth with ASD make important contributions to children with ASD and the larger family and should be included in future research on children with ASD.

Male partners/fathers are key support persons for many childbearing women and their involvement in pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum/postnatal period has beneficial effects on a wide range of outcomes related to maternal and child health and family wellbeing. Social support is implicated in the relevant causal pathway, but has received largely tangential attention in the public health literature. This discussion paper aims to reframe men's participation in maternity care as an opportunity to enhance their readiness and ability to provide social support to women, contributing to the debate on the definition and rationale for male partner involvement, and paving the way for further empirical work. I begin by presenting a theory of change illustrating the causal pathway leading from male partner participation, through the key intermediate step of social support, to improved health and wellbeing for women and children. I proceed by arguing that many people desire male partner participation in maternity care; however, in practice, this is often limited owing to cultural, social and institutional barriers. I use examples from the intervention literature to demonstrate how participation in care can boost men's motivation to support women and enhance their ability to do so by increasing their knowledge and skills. Finally, I draw up general implications for further male partner involvement programmes, suggesting that in order to achieve meaningful and sustainable gains, attention to design is crucial in order to avoid reinforcing patriarchal gender norms. Programmes should be implemented alongside other efforts to improve quality and promote woman-centred care. This article is part of the theme issue 'Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal–child health'.

Fathers are known to impact breastfeeding outcomes. We aimed to explore paternal knowledge and attitude toward breastfeeding, and possible association with breastfeeding rates at discharge. In this cross-sectional study, we enrolled 200 fathers of healthy term neonates. At discharge, fathers were asked to rate their degree of agreement to 12 items on a 5-point Likert scale. A total score was obtained from their answers. Univariate binary logistic regression analysis was used to verify if the total score was predictive of exclusive breastfeeding at discharge. A multivariable logistic regression model was then used to adjust for possible confounders. ROC analysis was performed, and a Youden’s total score cut-off value was determined to define total score’s performance in predicting exclusive breastfeeding at discharge. Fathers showed a solid knowledge of maternal (87%) and neonatal (98%) benefits of breastfeeding, skin-to-skin (99.5%), rooming-in (79%), and responsive feeding (67.5%); conversely, only 51% knew about the recommended use of pacifiers. Fathers felt personally involved in babies’ feeding in 79% of cases. An association was found between total score and exclusive breastfeeding at discharge at univariate (OR: 1.07, p = 0.04) but not at multivariable analysis (OR: 1.07, p = 0.067). ROC analysis was not statistically significant (AUC 0.58, p = 0.083).Conclusion: By using a novel instrument aimed at quantifying fathers’ knowledge and overall attitude toward breastfeeding, this study underlines the importance of including fathers in the promotion of breastfeeding. Expanding the classic mother-baby dyad to a more modern mother-father-baby triad may impact breastfeeding outcomes at discharge.What is known:• Social support plays a major role in improving breastfeeding outcomes.• Fathers may greatly influence initiation and duration of breastfeeding; the more they know, the more helpful they can be.What is new:• A multidisciplinary team created a structured questionnaire aimed at quantifying fathers’ knowledge and attitude toward breastfeeding.• The association between a higher questionnaire total score and exclusive breastfeeding rates at discharge highlights the importance of including fathers in the promotion of breastfeeding, as part of the breastfeeding team.

Introduction: This study evaluated the effectiveness of a Health Belief Model (HBM)-based Husband Empowerment Module in enhancing husbands' preparedness behaviors for postpartum contraceptive support. Methods: A quasi-experimental pre-posttest control group design was conducted at two community health centers in Samarinda, Indonesia. Sixty husbands of third-trimester pregnant women were recruited through a combination of sampling, purposive sampling, and random sampling. Purposive sampling was used to choose the treatment group, and random sampling was used to select the participants, who were assigned to the intervention (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. The intervention group received a comprehensive 12-session HBM-based module delivered through antenatal care visits, home visits, group discussions, and WhatsApp support over three months. Preparedness behavior was measured using validated questionnaires assessing awareness, facilitation ability, and appreciation. Nonparametric statistical analyses were employed. Results: Post-intervention, the treatment group demonstrated significant improvements across all preparedness dimensions: awareness median scores increased from 9.0 to 11.0 (p<0.001), facilitation ability, from 5.0 to 6.0 (p<0.001), and appreciation from 4.0 to 5.0 (p<0.001), while the control group showed no significant changes (all p>0.05). Between-group comparisons revealed substantially higher preparedness in the intervention group with large effect sizes. Notably, 83.3% of intervention participants achieved good facilitation ability compared to 0% at baseline. Conclusions: The HBM-based Husband Empowerment Module effectively enhanced husbands' preparedness for postpartum contraceptive support, suggesting that structured interventions can improve husband involvement in postpartum care and maternal health outcomes.

Positive paternal involvement during early childhood is important for fostering healthy development. However, mental health conditions, particularly depression, can significantly limit a father's ability to engage constructively. This study explored whether religiosity can act as a resource for fathers, potentially mitigating the adverse effects of depression on their ability to engage in their child’s life. Analyzing survey data from 1147 fathers with children aged two to eight, the study investigated the how religiosity and depression interact across four domains of paternal involvement: engagement, warmth, harsh punishment, and positive control. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that fathers with higher religiosity scores exhibited more warmth, greater engagement, and higher levels of both harsh punishment and positive control techniques. Fathers with more depression symptoms were associated with more frequent harsh punishment behaviors and lower reports of warmth compared to fathers with less depression symptoms. Notably, a significant interaction effect between depression and religiosity was identified, indicating that fathers with high levels of both depressive symptoms and religiosity were at the greatest risk of engaging in harsh punishment behaviors. These findings suggest that while religiosity may support positive parenting behaviors, it may also intensify the use of harsh punishment among fathers struggling with depression. This highlights the need for targeted interventions to help fathers manage their depression and adopt positive parenting practices. Highlights Religiosity is associated with fathers’ disciplinary approaches during early childhood. Fathers with elevated depressive symptoms tend to use harsher punishment and show less warmth compared to those with lower symptoms. Fathers with a history of depression are more likely to employ forceful discipline, particularly when their religious beliefs play a central role in their personal identity.

As fathering research has flourished, a growing body of studies has focused on behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms, respectively associated with caregiving sensitivity and responsiveness to infant stimuli. However, the association between these aspects and the key concept of paternal involvement in childcare (i.e., contribution in infant care in terms of time, availability, and responsibility) has been poorly investigated. The current work aims to systematically review the role of involvement in childcare on both neural activations and sensitive behaviors in fathers by examining (a) how paternal involvement has been measured and (b) whether paternal involvement has been associated with neurobiological activation and behavioral sensitive responses. Inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed quantitative studies, concerning fathers responding to infant stimuli at neurobiological or behavioral level, and including a quantitative measurement of paternal involvement in childcare. A quality rating for each study has been performed based on the measurements adopted to assess paternal involvement. Of 2529 articles, 27 studies were included. According to our quality rating, 10 out of 27 studies included fairly good-standard measures for measuring paternal involvement, whereas 17 studies used good-standard measures. In addition, 11 studies provided details of paternal involvement in the context of neurobiological responses to infant stimuli, whereas 16 addressed paternal sensitive behaviors. Overall, only 8 studies reported relevant findings about the relationship between paternal involvement and neurobiological responses or sensitive behaviors in fathers. The present study is the first systematically evaluating the scope of paternal involvement in the field of Paternal Brain and fathers’ sensitive responsiveness research. When high-standard measures are used, paternal involvement seems to play a significant role in modulating both the hormonal and the neural pathways associated with paternal behaviors. Remarkably, the role of paternal engagement may underpin an adaptive nurturance that is not dependent on pregnancy and childbirth but on caregiving experience. A promising positive link between paternal involvement and behavioral sensitivity may be expected in further studies, which will need to corroborate our conclusion by adopting detailed and appropriate measures assessing paternal involvement. As a future line of research, the inclusion of gay fathers may be beneficial for the field.

While maternal influences on childhood immunization have been extensively studied in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), paternal socioeconomic factors remain underexplored despite their potential impact on vaccination outcomes. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize current evidence on the influence of paternal characteristics on full childhood immunization status in SSA. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase, and Scopus for studies published between January 2014 and March 2025. Studies were included if they examined paternal factors, such as education, employment, and decision-making power, in relation to childhood immunization among children under five in SSA. Data were extracted from 16 eligible studies, and a meta-analysis was conducted using MetaXL and IBM SPSS to calculate pooled prevalence and effect sizes. The Downs and Black checklist was used for risk of bias assessment. Of the 16 studies included, seven contributed data to the meta-analysis on full immunization. The pooled prevalence of full immunization was 60 % (95 % CI: 37–81 %) across SSA. Children of fathers with primary education or higher were nearly three times more likely to be fully immunized than those whose fathers had no formal education (OR = 2.72, 95 % CI: 1.22–6.03, I2 = 98 %). While the association between paternal employment status and child immunization was statistically non-significant (OR = 1.74, 95 % CI: 0.10–29.20, I2 = 91 %), qualitative findings suggest employment influences health-seeking behavior. Decision-making power within households also emerged as an important factor, with joint parental decision-making linked to higher immunization coverage. Interventions aiming to improve immunization outcomes should consider strategies to engage fathers, promote joint decision-making, and address underlying gender norms. Further research is needed to understand better the mechanisms through which paternal factors influence vaccine uptake in diverse SSA settings.

IntroductionInfant intrinsic factors, parental mental health, and parenting functioning could influence infant sleep development (Camerota et al., 2019). The current study was designed to advance understanding of parental mental health in influencing bedtime resistance in infants aging 8-12 months.ObjectivesThe main aim of the present study was to examine the role of parental postpartum affective disorders, infants’ temperament and paternal involvement at bedtime in predicting infants’ bedtime resistance (e.g. fussing, crying or protesting).Methods60 Italian families of infants (34 boys and 26 girls) aging from 8 to 12months (M =10.73, SD = 2.54) participated in this study. Parents completed Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (Sadeh et al., 2009), Perinatal Assessment of Paternal and Maternal Affectivity (Baldoni et al., 2018), QUIT for infants’ temperament (Axia, 2002) and an ad-hoc questionnaire for fathers’ involvement. Two multiple linear regressions (MR), one for fathers and one for mothers, and relative weight analyses (RWA) were conducted.ResultsInfants’ involvement in constant bedtime routines (reported by fathers: β = −.35, p < .05; mothers: β = −.31, p < .05) and paternal involvement at bedtime (fathers: β = −.45, p < .01; mothers: β = −.27, p < .05) represented protective factors for infants’ bedtime difficulties. Paternal affective disorders, accounted for 17.2% of the explained variance for mothers’ and 12.5% for fathers’ reports of infant bedtime difficulties, more than did maternal postpartum affective disorders.ConclusionsFindings support that parental mental health can interfere with infants’ bedtime resistance.

Understanding the conditions that facilitate mothers’ employment and fathers’ involvement in childcare and housework is important for achieving gender equity in paid and unpaid work. Using Sen’s capabilities framework, the article explores the effect of paternal involvement in childcare on mothers’ employment resumption nine months and three years’ post-childbirth. Logistic regression is used on the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study. Results show that the probability of mothers resuming employment increase at both time points if the father is more involved in childcare nine months post-birth – and in some cases, this is more important for her employment resumption than her occupational class and the number of hours the father spends in paid work. However, attitudes have an even stronger effect, and appear to drive behaviour, as the probability of mothers resuming employment increase significantly three years post-birth if either parent endorses more gender egalitarian roles in the first year of parenthood.