Bottle-Feeding and Father-Infant Relationships: Associations Between Bottle-Feeding and Paternal Attachment

• In Event: Paternal parenting

Abstract

While the importance of paternal-infant interactions is increasingly recognized, little work examines the possible role of engaging in direct care through bottle-feeding. We consider whether bottle-feeding (using formula or expressed breastmilk) is associated with measures of fathers’ relationships with their infants, their relationships with their co-parent, and paternal depression. The scales/items were administered in an online survey and included: the Paternal Postnatal Attachment Scale (PPAS) (Condon et al., 2008); the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) (Kroenke et al., 2003); and the Perceived Relationship Quality Components Inventory (Fletcher et al., 2000). Participants were fathers of infants (newborn-12 months) and cohabitating with their infants and the infants’ mothers. Participants were from diverse ethnic, racial, economic, and educational backgrounds.

Paternal Attachment
Bottle-feeding was analyzed as both a categorical and frequency variable. The three subscales of the PPAS are patience and tolerance with the infant, pleasure in interaction with the infant, and affection towards the infant. The multivariate model of the relationship between fathers’ participation in bottle-feeding and patience and tolerance was statistically significant, R2 = .15, F(8, 378) = 8.3, p < .001; fathers who participated in bottle-feeding had significantly higher scores on the patience and tolerance subscale than did fathers who did not participate in bottle-feeding, p = .01. Models for the pleasure in interaction and affection subscales were not statistically significant (Table 1). When we examined only those fathers with some involvement in bottle-feeding, we found sizable, positive, and statistically significant relationships between frequency of bottle-feeding and patience and tolerance, p < .001; pleasure in interaction, p < .001; and affection, p < .001 (Table 2).

Paternal Depression
Fathers’ depressive symptoms were measured using summative scores from two PHQ-2 items: how often the father “felt down, depressed or hopeless” and how often he “had little interest or little pleasure in doing things,” in the time since the new baby was born. The multivariate model of the relationship between fathers’ participation in bottle-feeding and depression was statistically significant, R2 = .18, F(8, 377) = 10.1, p < .001; fathers who participated in bottle-feeding had significantly lower depression scores than did fathers who did not, p < .001 (Table 1). The model for frequency of bottle-feeding was also statistically significant, R2 = .10, F(8, 311) = 4.3, p < .001; frequency of bottle-feeding was inversely associated with depression scores, p = .01 (Table 2).

Co-Parental Relationship
Respondents were asked to rate six indicators of relationship quality (e.g., intimacy and trust) on a 7-point frequency scale. Fathers’ involvement in bottle-feeding was not significantly associated with their perceptions of the quality of their relationship with their child’s mother (Table 1). Among fathers who had any involvement in bottle-feeding, the frequency with which they bottle fed their infant was significantly and positively associated with perceived relationship quality, p < .001 (Table 2).

Conclusions
Our findings dovetail with previous research emphasizing the importance of paternal involvement with infants. Moreover, our research enriches the discussion on infant feeding by recognizing that bottle-feeding may provide valuable opportunities for co-parental engagement.

Authors

• Mariah G Schug, Widener University
  Presenting Author

• Linda Houser, Salisbury University

• Julie Abrams, Widener University

• Margo Campbell, Widener University