Progress On The Paternal Brain: Theory, Animal Models, Human Brain Research, And Mental Health Implications

With a secure foundation in basic research across mammalian species in which fathers participate in the raising of young, novel brain‐imaging approaches are outlining a set of consistent brain circuits that regulate paternal thoughts and behaviors in humans. The newest experimental paradigms include increasingly realistic baby‐stimuli to provoke paternal cognitions and behaviors with coordinated hormone measures to outline brain networks that regulate motivation, reflexive caring, emotion regulation, and social brain networks with differences and similarities to those found in mothers. In this article, on the father brain, we review all brain‐imaging studies on PubMed to date on the human father brain and introduce the topic with a selection of theoretical models and foundational neurohormonal research on animal models in support of the human work. We discuss potentially translatable models for the identification and treatment of paternal mood and father–child relational problems, which could improve infant mental health and developmental trajectories with potentially broad public health importance. RESUMEN Con fundación segura en la investigación básica a través de las especies mamíferas en las que los padres participan en la crianza de sus pequeños, los novedosos acercamientos en el campo de imágenes cerebrales están definiendo un grupo de circuitos cerebrales consistentes que regulan los pensamientos y conductas paternas en los humanos. El más reciente paradigma experimental incluye cada vez más estímulos realistas al bebé para provocar percepciones y conductas paternas con medidas hormonales coordinadas para delinear las redes cerebrales que regulan la motivación, el cuidado reflexivo, la regulación de la emoción y las redes cerebrales sociales, con diferencias y similitudes a las que se presentan en las madres. En este artículo sobre el cerebro del padre, revisamos todos los estudios de imágenes cerebrales en PubMed hasta la fecha sobre el cerebro humano del padre e introducimos el tema con una selección de modelos teóricos y una básica investigación neuro‐hormonal en modelos animales como apoyo al trabajo humano. Discutimos modelos potencialmente transferibles para la identificación y tratamiento de problemas de estado de humor y de relación padre‐hijo, lo cual pudiera mejorar la salud mental infantil y las trayectorias de desarrollo con una potencial amplia importancia de salud pública. RÉSUMÉ Avec une fondation solide en recherches de base au travers des espèces de mammifères dans laquelle les pères participent à l’éducation des jeunes, des nouvelles approachs d’imagerie exposent un groupe de circuits du cerveau constants qui régulent les pensées paternelles et les comportements chez les humains. Les nouveaux paradigmes expérimentaux incluent des bébé‐stimulus de plus en plus réalistes pour provoquer des cognitions et des comportements paternels avec des mesures d’hormones coordonnées afin de souligner les réseaux qui régulent la motivation, le soin réfléchi, la régulation de l’émotion et les réseaux sociaux du cerveau avec les différences et les similarités que l’on trouve chez les mères. Dans cet article sur le cerveau du père, nous passons en revue toutes les études d’imagerie cérébrale trouvées par le moteur de recherche PubMed qui existent sur le cerveau humain du père et nous présentons le sujet au moyen d’une sélection de modèles théoriques et de recherches en matière neurohomormonale fondamentale chez des modèles animaux pour soutenir le travail sur l’humain. Nous discutons des modèles que l’on pourrait traduire pour l’identification et le traitement de l’humeur paternelle et les problèmes relationnels père‐enfant, qui pourraient améliorer la santé mentale du nourrisson et les trajectoires de développement cela pouvant avoir à la clé une grande importance pour la santé publique. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Mit einem sicheren Fundament in der Grundlagenforschung über Säugetierarten, tragen Väter zu der Entwicklung von jungen, neuartigen bildgebenden Ansätzen bei, indem eine Reihe von konsistenten neuronalen Verschaltungen skizziert wird, die väterliche Gedanken und Verhaltensweisen beim Menschen regulieren. Die neuesten experimentellen Paradigmen nutzen realistische Säuglings‐Stimuli, um väterliche Kognitionen und Verhaltensweisen hervorzurufen, um mit abgestimmten Hormonerfassungen Netzwerke im Gehirn zu skizzieren, die Motivation, reflexive Fürsorge, Emotionsregulation und soziale Netzwerke im Gehirn regulieren. Diese sollen hinsichtlich Unterschieden und Ähnlichkeiten zu denen bei Müttern gefundenen Netzwerken betrachtet werden. In diesem Artikel zum Gehirn des Vaters, bieten wir einen Überblick über alle aktuellen bildgebenden Studien auf Pubmed über das menschliche Gehirn des Vaters und führen mit einer Auswahl von theoretischen Modellen und grundlegender neurohormonaler Forschung an Tiermodellen zur Unterstützung der menschlichen Arbeit in das Thema ein. Wir diskutieren potenziell übersetzbare Modelle für die Erkennung und Behandlung der väterlichen Stimmung und von Vater‐Kind‐Beziehungsproblemen, welche die psychische Gesundheit von Säuglingen und Entwicklungsverläufe mit potenziell großer Bedeutung für die öffentliche Gesundheit verbessern könnten. ABSTRACT 抄録：父親が幼い子育てに参加するほ乳類全体にわたる基礎研究での強固な基盤とともに、新しい脳画像アプローチによって、人類における父親の思考と行動を調節する一連の一貫した脳回路の輪郭が描かれつつある。母親に見られたものとの共通点と相違点とともに、動機、リフレクティブな養育、情緒調節を調節する脳のネットワーク、および社会脳のネットワークの輪郭を描くために、最新の実験パラダイムには、協調的なホルモンの測定とともに、父親の認知と行動を引き起こすための、ますます現実的な赤ちゃんの刺激が含まれる。父親の脳についてのこの論文では、私たちは今日までの人間の父親の脳についての pubmed にある全ての脳画像研究をレビューする。そして、人間の研究を支援して、選択した理論的モデルと、動物モデルについての基礎的神経内分泌研究のトピックを紹介する。私たちは、父親の気分と父子関係の問題を同定し治療するための、翻訳可能なモデルを考察する。それは、幅広い公衆衛生の重要性を持つ可能性のある、乳幼児精神保健と発達の軌跡を向上させるだろう。Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108662/1/imhj21471.pd

Don't touch: Developmental trajectories of toddlers' behavioral regulation related to older siblings' behaviors and parental discipline

Behavioral regulation is one of the key developmental skills children acquire during early childhood. Previous research has focused primarily on the role of parents as socializing agents in this process, yet it is likely that older siblings also are influential given the numerous daily interactions between siblings. This exploratory longitudinal study investigated developmental heterogeneity in behavioral regulation during toddlerhood and the early preschool years (18 to 36 months) and relations with older siblings' control and behavioral regulation while taking into account parental discipline. Toddlers were visited at home at 18, 24, and 36 months and observed during a gift-delay task with their older sibling in 93 families. Behavioral regulation of both siblings and gentle and harsh control of the older sibling were coded during the sibling gift-delay task, which was validated using parent-reports of toddlers' internalized conduct. Analyses revealed five distinct developmental trajectories among toddlers' behavioral regulation, revealing different patterns of developmental multifinality and equifinality. Older siblings' harsh control and parental discipline differed across toddler trajectory groups. Older siblings' behaviors covaried with the toddlers' behavioral regulation suggesting that older siblings may be acting as models for younger siblings, as well as disciplining and teaching toddlers to resist temptation.Education and Child Studie

Configurations of mother-child and father-child attachment as predictors of internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems: An individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis

An unsettled question in attachment theory and research is the extent to which children's attachment patterns with mothers and fathers jointly predict developmental outcomes. In this study, we used individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis to assess whether early attachment networks with mothers and fathers are associated with children's internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. Following a pre-registered protocol, data from 9 studies and 1,097 children (mean age: 28.67 months) with attachment classifications to both mothers and fathers were included in analyses. We used a linear mixed effects analysis to assess differences in children's internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems as assessed via the average of both maternal and paternal reports based on whether children had two, one, or no insecure (or disorganized) attachments. Results indicated that children with an insecure attachment relationship with one or both parents were at higher risk for elevated internalizing behavioral problems compared with children who were securely attached to both parents. Children whose attachment relationships with both parents were classified as disorganized had more externalizing behavioral problems compared to children with either one or no disorganized attachment relationship with their parents. Across attachment classification networks and behavioral problems, findings suggest (a) an increased vulnerability to behavioral problems when children have insecure or disorganized attachment to both parents, and (b) that mother-child and father-child attachment relationships may not differ in the roles they play in children's development of internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems

One and Done: the Relative Impact of Perinatal Psychosocial Factors on Having One Child Compared to Two Children

Family size is traditionally studied by demographers, examining demographic changes in industrialized societies that affect child bearing. Those studies suggest that perceived resources, such as financial means (Sobotka et al., 2010), maternal age (McLanahan, 2004) and social support (Hrdy, 2009) are important for family size. In addition, psychologists have also successfully investigated factors relevant for having one child. Jokela (2010) found that more negatively perceived infant temperament and toddler cognitive ability increased chances of not having a second child. Leahy-Warren and McCarthy (2010) showed that mothers with one child had lower parenting self-efficacy than mothers with two children, arguing that more parenting experiences enhanced self-efficacy in mothers with two children. However, it may be that mothers having a second child have higher parenting self-efficacy than mothers deciding on one child as result of feeling more successful as a first-time parent. Postnatal depressive symptoms in first-time mothers have been found to result in more negative feelings towards their child (Fowles, 1996), possibly also influencing women not to have a second child. From a biosocial perspective, lower parenting self-efficacy and more depressive symptoms (Green & Murray, 1994) in women could already play a role before birth of the first child. Kohler (2005b) and Foster (2000) suggest that women have a biosocial endowment (i.e. preexisting differences) that guides them to have or not to have a second child. The current study sought to gain more insight into the relative impact of perceived resources and preexisting differences in a prenatal model (N = 181 first-time pregnant women) and perceived resources and psychosocial factors in three postnatal models (3 months: N = 175; 1 year: N = 172; 2 years: N = 174) on not having a second child. Hierarchical logistic regressions were used to compare women with two children and women pregnant of a second child to women with one child that stated not to want a second child (see Table 1 for variables per time point). Results are presented in Table 2. As expected, perceived resources were found to have a large impact on not having a second child in all four models. The impact of perceived resources grew from the prenatal model to 1 year and slightly decreased to 2 years. Income and age were most important, and support had a small effect at 1 year and 2 years. The control variable child gender was also significant, indicating that having a girl resulted in higher chances of having one child. Although parenting self-efficacy and temperament were not significant in the postnatal models, interestingly, results indicated there were preexisting psychosocial differences between women that influenced having one child instead of two children. Small decreases in prenatal parenting self-efficacy were related to increased chances of having one child. The current study suggests that, besides the combined impact of income, age and support, prenatal parenting self-efficacy is relevant for not having a second child. Future research should further examine prenatal psychosocial factors in the context of perceived resources to understand mechanisms related to family size

Marital conflict patterns: Link with family conflict and family members' perceptions of others

The goal of this study was to explore the effects of marital conflict on conflict patterns in the family, and on family members' perceptions of one another. Sixty-eight two-parent families with adolescent twins participated, with parents reporting on the conflict patterns used by the marital dyad, and by themselves in interaction with each of their twins, and adolescent twins reporting on their interactions with each other. In addition, all four family members engaged in a videotaped decision-making interaction and then made global ratings of each other on five dimensions. Links were obtained between marital conflict patterns and parent-child conflict patterns, and between parent-child conflict patterns and those used in sibling relationships. In contrast, marital conflict patterns were unrelated to sibling conflict patterns. Similarly, links were found between marital conflict and fathers' perceptions of their children, and between father-child conflict and children's perceptions of each other. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical models of conflict resolution and the transmission of conflict patterns within the family