Poster #88 - Breastfeeding Duration and Fathers’ Supportive Caregiving in Early Childhood: The Intermediate Role of Mothers’ Caregiving

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Prior research has shown that longer duration of breastfeeding is associated with higher levels of supportive parenting in mothers. However, it remains unknown whether the benefits of breastfeeding also extend to fathers’ supportive parenting. As fathers’ parenting is influenced by contextual factors, including mothers’ parenting behaviors, it is possible that breastfeeding will benefit fathers’ parenting via mothers’ supportive parenting. Thus, the present study examined the link between duration of breastfeeding in infancy and fathers’ supportive parenting in the preschool years, as potentially mediated by mothers’ supportive parenting in toddlerhood.

Participating families (N = 623) were from the Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study (BONDS), a population-based longitudinal study in southeast Norway. Parents reported on breastfeeding duration in infancy, and supportive parenting behaviors were assessed via videotaped parent-child interaction tasks for both mothers (24 months) and fathers (36 months). Path analyses were conducted to test associations between breastfeeding duration in infancy and fathers’ supportive parenting, including an indirect path via mothers’ supportive parenting. The final path model adjusted for sociodemographic (child’s sex, parents’ nativity, socioeconomic risk) and birth covariates (birthweight, NICU admittance).

Results indicated that longer duration of breastfeeding in infancy associated with greater supportive parenting behaviors in mothers at 24 months (β=.12, CI=[.04, .21]), which, in turn, associated with greater supportive parenting behaviors in fathers at 36 months (β=.12, CI=[.04,.20]). Notably, the total effect of breastfeeding duration on fathers’ supportive parenting at 36 months was attenuated to non-significance following covariate adjustment. However, the indirect association between breastfeeding duration and fathers’ supportive parenting via mothers’ supportive parenting remained significant after adjusting for sociodemographic and birth covariates (β=.02, CI=[.000004,.03]).

Findings suggest that longer breastfeeding duration during the first year of life might have important implications for both mothers’ and fathers’ supportive parenting in early childhood. Future research could extend this work by assessing the potential benefits of breastfeeding on fathers’ parenting in more socioeconomically diverse populations with lower rates of breastfeeding.

Authors

• Brianna N. Natale, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Julia Sarah Feldman, University of Pittsburgh

• Daniel S. Shaw, University of Pittsburgh

• Kristin Berg Nordahl

• Harald Janson, The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development (NUBU)

• Ane Nærde, The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development