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Viewed alongside these past findings, the steep transient T decrease that we document among fathers with newborns could indicate an anticipatory psychological component to men's T decline around the time of birth of their children. In a study of a polygynous Senegalese society, it was found that fathers who were highly invested in their children, as reported by the children's mothers, had lower T compared with fathers who were less invested (24). Familial composition was not a confounding influence on the relationships that we documented, which is consistent with previous research from Cebu reporting that fathers did not alter their childcare participation based on their number of children (38).Those taking birth control pills (9%) were eliminated from the sample because of their potential to distort assay results for testosterone. The assays were conducted in duplicate, and the values of the two were averaged for a single measure. Saliva samples were assayed for testosterone using a double antibody radioimmunoassay for total serum testosterone (Diagnostic Systems Laboratories, Webster, TX) as modified by Granger et al. (1999) for use with saliva. Families were given $100 honorarium for the interview portion of the study and an additional $25 if they provided saliva samples. A comparison of demographic and relationship characteristics of families who provided morning samples and those who did not revealed no systematic differences. Families participating in the study were middle-class or working-class and resided in rural areas, towns, or small cities. This response rate is comparable to the National Survey of Families and Households rate of 37% for three family members.
Models 2 and 3 test whether the link between parental testosterone and parent-child relationship quality is affected by mother’s (2) or father’s (3) marital satisfaction. Model 1 assess whether there are net average effects of parent testosterone on parent-child relationship quality. The models presented below test our hypotheses regarding the link between parents’ testosterone and parent-child relationship quality. In addition to using child reports of relationship quality, we also examined marital satisfaction from the perspective of both mothers and fathers. Research has consistently shown both men and women experience emotional transmission from one family relationship to another (White, 1999), though men appear to have larger declines than women in parent-child relationship quality when faced with other conflictual family relationships (Belskey et al., 1991; Osborne and Fincham, 1996). As a result, the importance of testosterone in understanding parent-child relationship quality may be partially driven by the contours of the family landscape, particularly as it relates to positive or negative functioning of other family dyads.
Although mothers with higher testosterone levels demonstrate less engagement with their children (Clowtis et al., 2016) and are more likely to be childless (Kuzawa et al., 2010), no known studies have considered whether mothers’ testosterone levels relate to their child abuse risk. However, it is important to recognize that fathers’ testosterone levels do not demonstrate incremental variance in predicting abuse risk beyond what is attributable to their socioeconomic status (also apparent in the main effects in the interaction analyses). Potentially, socioeconomic status, stress from the restrictiveness of the parenting role, and emotion regulation abilities may interact with testosterone levels to affect parents’ child abuse risk. Nonetheless, relative to fathers, considerably less empirical work has evaluated testosterone levels in new mothers in relation to their parenting behavior. In summary, neither maternal nor paternal testosterone had a net effect on parent-child relationship quality, although there were important interactions between the quality of other family relationships and the link between mothers’ testosterone and the mother-child bond. Consistent with this notion are the findings that mothers with high levels of testosterone are less effective at maintaining boundaries between relationships and often fail to block the influence of either the marital or spouse-child dyad from influencing the quality of the relationship they have with their child. However, there were two interactions between the quality of father’s family relationships and mother’s testosterone that predicted the quality of her relationships with her children.
It suggests that the body can downregulate testosterone to support family life without crossing the threshold into a disease state. The study then addressed the medical implications of these findings. By accounting for these variables, the researchers could isolate the specific associations between family structure and testosterone. These included age, body fat percentage as measured by waist circumference, sleep habits, and physical activity levels. This leaves a gap in understanding how male biology functions as children grow up. Researchers often concentrate on the transition to fatherhood during the first year of a child’s life. However, the majority of this research has focused on the very early stages of parenthood.
During pregnancy, reduced testosterone may lead expectant fathers to take better care of their pregnant counterparts, for example, by being physically gentle or creating comfortable places for their partners to rest. Researchers speculate that this decrease in testosterone leads to more caregiving behaviors during pregnancy and after childbirth. Programs like paid paternity leave fundamentally affect the amount of time fathers spend with their infants, which may have biological consequences. As of 2022, 63% of the world’s countries guarantee fathers the opportunity to take paid paternity leave (Peck, 2023); however, many countries, including the United States, still do not guarantee leave for either parent, let alone fathers. In addition, both mothers and fathers should be aware of the signs of postpartum depression and be willing to seek support and care, Saxbe said.
At Time 3, parents (180 mothers, 144 fathers) were invited to contribute saliva for this adjunct study module. Among women, lower testosterone levels have been observed in mothers relative to childless women (Kuzawa, Gettler, Huang, & McDade, 2010), particularly in mothers of young children (Barrett et al., 2013). Among new fathers transitioning into parenthood, lower testosterone levels have been detected in men with greater paternal involvement and investment (Gettler, McDade, Agustin, Feranil, & Kuzawa, 2013; Saxbe, Edelstein et al., 2017; Weisman, Zagoory-Sharon, & Feldman, 2014). Because child protective services identify only a fraction of parents engaged in physical abuse, prevention efforts strive to decrease the likelihood a parent will abuse their children, termed child abuse potential (Milner, 1994).