A 2019 cross-sectional study examined the relationship between father-infant interactions and regional brain volumes in infants aged 3 to 6 months. Participants included 46 families of healthy infants who were recruited from South East London. Results from this study illustrated that higher levels of paternal sensitivity was associated with smaller cerebellar volumes during natural sleep (a good outcome) in highly communicative infants. This study provides the first evidence for an association between father-child interactions and variation in infant brain anatomy.

A 2018 systematic review examined the effect of engaging fathers in mothers’ and infants’ health care and found that fathers’ responses decreased the percentage of stillbirths and early neonatal mortality, improved support for the mothers, and increased both communication between couples and their joint decision-making capacity.

A 2006 study using the Wisconsin Study of Families and Work (WSFW) of 1998 examined how much a fathers’ involvement during their child’s infancy predicted their child’s mental health outcomes at age 9 years. Results from this study illustrated that children whose fathers had minimal involvement during infancy had heightened biobehavioral vulnerability, which in turn made them more likely to have mental health symptoms in childhood. These child symptoms were frequently further exacerbated by a mother’s depression.