Paternal Protective Parenting: Associations With Sensitivity, Vasopressin and Oxytocin

• In Event: Understanding and improving fathering in the prenatal and postnatal period

Abstract

Despite the evolutionary importance of protective parenting behaviour, research on protective parenting in humans is scarce and especially so in fathers (Hahn-Holbrook et al., 2011). Like parental sensitivity, protection may be linked to infant attachment, however, to date it is unclear whether and how these different parenting constructs are related (Bakermans-Kranenburg & Van IJzendoorn, 2017) and how protection relates to hormones implicated in parenting such as vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OT). Parental protection may positively relate to sensitivity as both involve similar components such as a focus on and proximity to the infant. Nevertheless, the two may also be distinct: whereas sensitivity involves responding to child signals, protection may comprise responding to a threat rather than child signals. We explored the relation between protection and sensitivity in first-time fathers of two-to-four-month-old infants. Concerning hormones, AVP has been proposed to be especially important for protective behaviour (e.g., Van Anders et al., 2011), but no previous studies examined AVP in relation to observed human protective behavior. OT has been repeatedly positively associated with paternal sensitivity (e.g., Feldman et al., 2010, 2011; Naber et al., 2010, 2013), and may also be related to protection, as OT administration increased protective behaviour in depressed mothers (Mah et al., 2015). Based on previous literature, we expected that AVP and OT might positively relate to both protection and sensitivity.
The sample included 79 fathers (Mage= 33.10 years, SDage = 5.36) and their infants (Mage = 11.62 weeks; SDage= 3.37). Paternal sensitivity was coded from a ten-minute father-infant interaction using the Ainsworth Sensitivity Scale (Ainsworth et al., 1974). Paternal protective behavior was observed using a newly developed experimental set-up, the Auditory Startling Task, consisting of a short loud sound fragment while father and infant were playing and being videotaped. Videos were rated on paternal protective behavior using a coding system for protective responses (Table 1). Interrater reliabilities were acceptable to good for sensitivity (ICCs single measures, absolute agreement >.68 ) and protection (ICCs > .84) Fathers’ saliva was collected before the parent-child interaction, using salivettes (Sarstedt). AVP and OT were quantified by radioimmunoassay at RIAgnosis (Sinzing, Germany).
Preliminary bivariate analyses showed that protective behavior and sensitivity were orthogonal, rs = .02, p = .88. Protection related negatively to AVP, rs = -.35, p < .01. There were no other significant correlations between hormonal levels and parenting, rs between -.11 and .07, ps > .32.
Protection has long been a largely neglected dimension of human parenting behaviour, however, the current results indicate that it is important to study protective behaviour alongside sensitivity as the two are distinct. The combination of the two dimensions in four quadrants may be of interest in the description of parenting behaviour in specific situations and in the prediction of child outcomes. Moreover, we found that paternal AVP levels are relevant for protective behaviour. The direction of this association was opposite to what we expected. Possible explanations for this finding are discussed and may relate to how we measured protection.

Authors

• Martine W. F. T. Verhees, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  Presenting Author

• Renate Buisman, Leiden University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna M Lotz, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lisa I Horstman, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, University College London (UCL)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marian J Bakermans-Kranenburg, ISPA Lisbon
  Non-Presenting Author