{"id":527151,"date":"2026-04-12T16:56:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T16:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/527151\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T16:56:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T16:56:36","slug":"how-fathers-can-make-their-children-healthier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/527151\/","title":{"rendered":"How Fathers Can Make Their Children Healthier"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to studying the role of family in children’s health, mothers receive most of the attention<\/a> to the exclusion of fathers. As a couple and family therapist, I see how the broader caregiving environment shapes children\u2019s well-being<\/a>. That’s why I was excited to see a recent study examining children\u2019s long-term health through a family systems lens.<\/p>\n

In the study<\/a> published in Health Psychology, researchers followed nearly 300 families of first-time parents (mother-father pairs) over the first 7 years of their child\u2019s life. They examined how early parent-child and coparenting behaviors were linked to children\u2019s cardiometabolic health in middle childhood<\/a>. This study\u2019s unique examination of children\u2019s health across the family over time demonstrated that fathers play a unique and powerful role in shaping their children\u2019s long-term physical health.<\/p>\n

Findings<\/p>\n

Fathers who were responsive, engaged, and affectionate during play with their infants were more likely to develop a cooperative coparenting relationship with mothers during toddlerhood.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, fathers who were less sensitive<\/a>, engaged, and affectionate during infant play were more likely to engage in competitive-withdrawn coparenting (e.g., competing for the child\u2019s attention or disengaging) with mothers during toddlerhood.<\/p>\n

These early patterns didn\u2019t just affect family dynamics in the moment; they had long-term health implications for children.<\/p>\n

Fathers who engaged in competitive-withdrawn coparenting were more likely to have children at age 7 with poorer health, such as higher inflammation and poorer blood sugar regulation. <\/p>\n

Taken together, these findings suggest that children are impacted not only by how fathers interact with them directly, but also by how well fathers work alongside mothers in the task of coparenting.<\/p>\n

An interesting and unexpected finding was that researchers did not find the same links between mothers\u2019 parenting<\/a> or coparenting behaviors and children\u2019s health outcomes. This does not suggest that mothers do not play a vital role in shaping children’s health. Rather, it points to the unique and often underrecognized contributions of fathers in the overall health and well-being of the family system.<\/p>\n

Clinical Implications<\/p>\n

The key takeaway is that fathers are not a side story; they are a necessary point of consideration within the family system that shapes maternal outcomes, parenting capacity, and child health and development. Findings from this study underscore the value of prevention and intervention programs grounded in a family systems perspective that enhances paternal involvement<\/a>, strengthens coparenting relationships, and routinely includes both parents in assessment and care.<\/p>\n

This study serves as a reminder that when we widen the lens beyond mothers alone, a clearer picture emerges: children\u2019s health is shaped by the relational system of caregivers that surround them, and fathers are a critical part of that story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to studying the role of family in children’s health, mothers receive most of the attention…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-527151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}