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  • Population Study Article
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Paternal involvement in infant care and developmental milestone outcomes at age 3 years: the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS)

Pediatric Research volume 95, pages 785–791 (2024)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

In developed countries, the time fathers spend on childcare has increased steadily in recent decades. However, studies on the relationship between paternal care and child outcomes remain scarce. Thus, we examined the association between paternal involvement in childcare and children’s developmental outcomes.

Methods

We used Japan’s largest birth cohort data, the Japan Environment and Children’s Study, to examine the relationship between paternal involvement in childcare at the child’s age of 6 months and developmental milestone outcomes at the child’s age of 3 years (n = 28,050). Developmental delays were assessed with Ages and Stages Questionnaire. Potential mediation by maternal parenting stress at the child’s age of 1.5 years was also examined. We used log-binomial regression analyses to estimate risk ratios.

Results

Fathers’ high involvement in childcare was associated with a lower risk of developmental delay in gross-motor, fine-motor, problem solving, and personal-social domains compared with low involvement, adjusting for potential confounders. For example, the risk ratio with 95% confidence intervals was 0.76 [0.67, 0.86] for the gross-motor domain. We also observed that the associations were partially mediated by maternal parenting stress.

Conclusions

Fathers’ active involvement in childcare during infancy may promote young children’s development, partially by reducing maternal parenting stress.

Impact

  • Using Japan’s largest birth cohort data (Japan Environment and Children’s Study), we showed that paternal involvement in infant care might benefit young children’s development.

  • Fathers’ active involvement in infant care was associated with a lower risk of developmental delays in gross-motor, fine-motor, problem solving, and personal-social domains.

  • Maternal parenting stress may mediate the association between paternal involvement in infant care and child development outcomes at 3 years.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the Japanese Ministry of Environment but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the JECS participants. This study was funded by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. The findings and conclusions of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not represent the official views of the above government ministry. We also wish to express our gratitude to the medical English editor at our center for editing this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Medicine, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan

    Tsuguhiko Kato

  2. Center for Baby Science, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan

    Tsuguhiko Kato, Mai Fujii & Shoji Itakura

  3. Japan Environment and Children’s Study, Kyoto Regional Center, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan

    Kumiko Kanatani, Fusako Niwa & Kyoko Hirabayashi

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Fusako Niwa

  5. Department of Health Informatics, Kyoto University School of Public Health, Kyoto, Japan

    Takeo Nakayama

  6. Nagoya City University, Nagoya, Japan

    Michihiro Kamijima

  7. National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan

    Shin Yamazaki

  8. National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan

    Yukihiro Ohya

  9. Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

    Reiko Kishi

  10. Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Nobuo Yaegashi

  11. Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan

    Koichi Hashimoto

  12. Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

    Chisato Mori

  13. Yokohama City University, Yokohama, Japan

    Shuichi Ito

  14. University of Yamanashi, Chuo, Japan

    Zentaro Yamagata

  15. University of Toyama, Toyama, Japan

    Hidekuni Inadera

  16. Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Takeo Nakayama

  17. Osaka University, Suita, Japan

    Hiroyasu Iso

  18. Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Japan

    Masayuki Shima

  19. Tottori University, Yonago, Japan

    Hiroshige Nakamura

  20. Kochi University, Nankoku, Japan

    Narufumi Suganuma

  21. University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan

    Koichi Kusuhara

  22. Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan

    Takahiko Katoh

Authors
  1. Tsuguhiko Kato
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  2. Mai Fujii
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  3. Kumiko Kanatani
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  4. Fusako Niwa
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  5. Kyoko Hirabayashi
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  6. Takeo Nakayama
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  7. Shoji Itakura
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Consortia

Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) Group

  • Michihiro Kamijima
  • , Shin Yamazaki
  • , Yukihiro Ohya
  • , Reiko Kishi
  • , Nobuo Yaegashi
  • , Koichi Hashimoto
  • , Chisato Mori
  • , Shuichi Ito
  • , Zentaro Yamagata
  • , Hidekuni Inadera
  • , Takeo Nakayama
  • , Hiroyasu Iso
  • , Masayuki Shima
  • , Hiroshige Nakamura
  • , Narufumi Suganuma
  • , Koichi Kusuhara
  •  & Takahiko Katoh

Contributions

T.K. conceptualized and designed the study, carried out the analyses, interpret the data, and drafted the manuscript. M.F., K.K., F.N., K.H., T.N., and S.I. made substantial contributions to acquisition of data and interpretation of data. All the authors have been involved in revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content and final approval of the version to be published.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tsuguhiko Kato.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all parents in this study.

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Kato, T., Fujii, M., Kanatani, K. et al. Paternal involvement in infant care and developmental milestone outcomes at age 3 years: the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS). Pediatr Res 95, 785–791 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-023-02723-x

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