Being able to recognize and respond to a child’s needs is about being attentive and caring for the child, and this can be achieved by any caregiver.
By nurturing strong father-child attachment, fathers contribute to the growth, resilience and happiness of their children.
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Equal shared parental responsibility will no longer automatically be considered to be in a child’s best interest. That’s a good thing, particularly in domestic violence situations.
First Nations fathers are too often the subject of negative, often untrue stereotypes. We analysed data from around 150 dads about what they needed. Here’s what they said.
Karina Gould pauses to talk to reporters as she carries her three-month-old baby, Oliver Gerones, following a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in May 2018.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Karina Gould’s parental leave is similar to that of many Canadians. Yet there are key differences, and they offer lessons on how parental leave could be redesigned to help more Canadian parents.
Too few Canadian fathers take parental leave. That’s because parental leave is framed as an employment policy rather than as care/work policy that promotes greater sharing of both paid and unpaid care work between parents.
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If more Canadian fathers are to harness the benefits of parental leave and remote work, we need to design employment and care policies in ways that recognize every family’s unique needs.
Strong, supportive relationships with moms, dads and nonparental caregivers are all vital.
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Psychologists have long focused on the importance of a secure attachment with a mother for healthy child development. A new look supports the value of attachment – but it doesn’t have to be with mom.
The State of the World’s Fathers report found that men reported ‘caring about care.’
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The latest State of the World’s Fathers report found a shift in attitudes. In 15 countries, between 70% and 90% of men agreed with the statement, “I feel as responsible for care work as my partner.”
For many Indigenous peoples, fathers can include extended family. ‘Emu men’ explores a new way for Indigenous father roles to be recognised in a way that celebrates this.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his son, Hadrien, watch a traditional First Nations game in Whitehorse, Yukon in February 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mike Thomas
Like everyone whose marriage breaks up, nothing is ever quite the same after. What impact Justin Trudeau’s marital breakup will have on his life and career will be revealed in the months to come.
Moms get about 25 minutes less sleep each weeknight when their kids’ school is in session.
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Parents spend more time actively engaged with their kids – such as helping with homework or reading together – during the school year than during summer. But the difference is almost three times greater for moms than for dads.
Leo Brophy, on right, pictured in Darwin during the war.
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Kevin Brophy grew up fearing his violent father. Going through the papers of his war record, he began to wonder if his dad was someone else as a young man — someone he might have enjoyed knowing.
This is an intuitive finding, but we had little empirical evidence of it until now. It highlights the critical role fathers play in steering boys towards healthier expressions of masculinity.
Darby Saxbe, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and Magdalena Martínez García, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón IiSGM
Neuroscientists know that pregnant mothers’ brains change in ways that appear to help with caring for a baby. Now researchers have identified changes in new fathers’ brains, too.
Soon after a baby is born, it’s becoming more common these days for the father or non-birthing parent to be encouraged to place the newborn directly on their chest.
‘The Holy Family,’ by the 17th-century Spanish painter Bartolome Esteban Murillo.
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