Peer-reviewed article
Paternal involvement and caregiving outcomes at three years: A study using municipal data in Japan
Shogo Akahoshi, Reiko Saito, Aya Yoshikawa, Kento Ikegawa, Funato Sato et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5The study used health examination records from Kitakyushu City, Japan, to look at whether fathers' involvement in childrearing at 18 months was linked to child development and caregiver outcomes at 3 years. Children whose caregivers reported consistent paternal involvement were slightly less likely to be flagged by a physician for developmental issues. Their caregivers also reported fewer concerns and less frustration about childcare. The authors describe the differences as small and as associations, and they link the findings to early childhood health promotion.
Key points
- Of 52,921 children in the records, 33,619 caregivers gave valid answers, and 21,956 (65.3%) reported consistent paternal involvement.
- Propensity score matching produced 11,175 matched pairs of children with consistent versus inconsistent paternal involvement.
- Physician-flagged developmental issues were 11.1% with consistent involvement versus 12.3% without (relative risk .91, 95% CI .83–.99).
- Fewer children with consistent paternal involvement could not say their own name (11.8% vs. 13.4%) or had difficulty dressing (5.5% vs. 7.0%).
- Caregivers reported fewer concerns about childcare (19.6% vs. 23.5%) and less frustration with childcare (16.3% vs. 20.3%).
Limitations
This is an observational association, and matching on measured characteristics cannot rule out unmeasured confounding or show that paternal involvement caused the differences. The abstract does not describe how involvement was measured beyond a caregiver's answer to a single question, and the differences are small. Only about two thirds of the children's records had valid responses, and the abstract does not say how the rest differ.
Abstract
Abstract This study aimed to ascertain whether paternal involvement in childrearing at 18 months was associated with developmental and caregiving outcomes at the age of 3 years. We used the health examination records of 52,921 children born in Kitakyushu City, Japan, between 2013 and 2019, whose caregivers were designated to answer a question about paternal involvement at the 18‐month examination. Valid responses were given by 33,619 caregivers, of whom 21,956 (65.3%) reported consistent involvement. To adjust for confounding by child and family characteristics, 1:1 propensity score matching was applied, yielding 11,175 matched pairs of children with consistent versus inconsistent involvement. The primary outcome, physician‐flagged developmental issues, was slightly less prevalent among children with consistent paternal involvement (11.1% vs. 12.3%; relative risk .91, 95% CI .83–.99). Fewer children in this group were unable to say their own name (11.8% vs. 13.4%) or had difficulty dressing (5.5% vs. 7.0%). A lower proportion of caregivers reported concerns about childcare (19.6% vs. 23.5%) and frustration with childcare (16.3% vs. 20.3%). These findings suggest that consistent paternal engagement during toddlerhood is associated with slightly better child development and caregiver well‐being, highlighting its potential relevance to early childhood health promotion strategies.