Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
- Reaction score
- 12,329
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
See:
https://aeon.co/essays/swedens-hands-on-dads-and-the-hormones-of-fatherhood
The title is: Latte Papas; Sweden's hands-on dads represent an alternate male form forged by lowered testosterone and the potent hormones of attachment.
It's an article by a journalist, not a scientific paper, but it does reference some research being done in the field.
"A 2011 longitudinal study of 624 Filipino men showed evening testosterone dropping by a median of 34 per cent in the first month after becoming fathers (the most extreme case saw a drop of 75 per cent). Levels of oxytocin, the so-called ‘cuddle hormone’, almost double in fathers between the time the mothers become pregnant and the first months of fatherhood. Prolactin, the hormone that triggers lactation in women, was almost a fifth higher in fathers of infants than in non-fathers. Fatherhood also physically alters the brain. In a 2014 study, researchers scanned men’s brains in the first month after their children were born, and then again after the fourth month. It turned out that gray matter grew in areas linked to reward, attachment and complex decision-making."
Naturally, given what passes for journalism nowadays, there are no citations, so I can't check the studies.
Supposedly, there is a group of scientists studying Swedish fathers to see if the Swedish system of almost gender equal parenting has produced even more of this effect.
I don't know what to think of this. I do think that something happens when you first hold and start caring for your infant which is life altering in ways that are unexpected, and I think that the more time a father spends caring for his children, the closer the bond. Whether that translates to less testosterone, and whether that would have personality wide effects, I don't know.
https://aeon.co/essays/swedens-hands-on-dads-and-the-hormones-of-fatherhood
The title is: Latte Papas; Sweden's hands-on dads represent an alternate male form forged by lowered testosterone and the potent hormones of attachment.
It's an article by a journalist, not a scientific paper, but it does reference some research being done in the field.
"A 2011 longitudinal study of 624 Filipino men showed evening testosterone dropping by a median of 34 per cent in the first month after becoming fathers (the most extreme case saw a drop of 75 per cent). Levels of oxytocin, the so-called ‘cuddle hormone’, almost double in fathers between the time the mothers become pregnant and the first months of fatherhood. Prolactin, the hormone that triggers lactation in women, was almost a fifth higher in fathers of infants than in non-fathers. Fatherhood also physically alters the brain. In a 2014 study, researchers scanned men’s brains in the first month after their children were born, and then again after the fourth month. It turned out that gray matter grew in areas linked to reward, attachment and complex decision-making."
Naturally, given what passes for journalism nowadays, there are no citations, so I can't check the studies.
Supposedly, there is a group of scientists studying Swedish fathers to see if the Swedish system of almost gender equal parenting has produced even more of this effect.
I don't know what to think of this. I do think that something happens when you first hold and start caring for your infant which is life altering in ways that are unexpected, and I think that the more time a father spends caring for his children, the closer the bond. Whether that translates to less testosterone, and whether that would have personality wide effects, I don't know.
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