New medical research from a group of Penn State scholars provides new evidence on the unique importance of a father’s role in boosting the physiological health of his children. Appearing in the journal Health Psychology, this longitudinal research is the first of its kind to document how warm and engaged fathering in early childhood raises “children’s later cardiometabolic health.” Put in plain language, this is one’s essential cardiovascular and metabolic system involving healthy blood pressure, cholesterol levels, insulin resistance and protection from inflammation.
These scholars noted that these physical health benefits “were unique to fathers, underscoring the pivotal role of father-child relationships in shaping children’s long-term physiological health” which “highlights fathers’ unique contributions to family systems and child development.”
This long-term study examined 292 families consisting of (largely) married mothers and fathers and their children, examining them at ages ten months, two- and seven. The six scholars found that father-warmth at younger ages positively and uniquely impacted heart and metabolic health in the long-term.
“We of course expected that family dynamics, everybody in the family, fathers and mothers, would impact child development — but it was only fathers, in this case,” Dr. Alp Aytuglu, the lead author of the study told The New York Times.
The Times explained, “Fathers who engaged more sensitively with their babies were better at co-parenting; and the children whose parents more easily co-parented had lower levels of C-reactive protein, or CRP, and glycated hemoglobin, or HbA1c.” This means fatherhood positively impacts the smallest, most remote parts of a child’s body. We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made.
These developments have very long-term implications on a child’s health, affecting their adult health into middle age and beyond. These findings strongly challenge the long-held assumption that it is mothering which most greatly affects child well-being.
A large body of research has long shown the unique importance of fathers for healthy child development. Dr. Kyle Pruett, a leading scholar on the topic, has long established that fathers are critical in the lives of their children because their parenting practices are unique compared to mothers and these differences provide importantly diverse developmental experiences.
In his book Fatherneed: Why Father Care Is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child, Pruett explains in chapter one that “Fathers Don’t Mother.” Thus, involved fathers give their children experiences that are unique from mothers. While mothers tend to quiet children down, giving them an essential sense of security, fathers are more likely to rile their children up, giving them a sense of excitement and adventure. Dad builds confidence. While mothers necessarily protect their children from the world, fathers are more likely to prepare their children for the world. Children need both.
Research also shows that fathers are more likely to stimulate greater vocabulary development in their children because they are not as likely to moderate their speech to the child’s level. Mom’s way of speaking to her children facilitates easy and immediate communication. Dad’s way creates a vocabulary lesson. Children benefit from both.
An important 2001 survey of empirical research on the impact of fathers in healthy child development published in the Review of General Psychology found, “The influence of father love on offspring’s development is as great as and occasionally greater than the influence of mother love.” These authors add, “Overall, father love appears to be as heavily implicated as mother love in offsprings’ psychological well-being and health, as well as in an array of psychological and behavioral problems.”
More recent research supports these conclusions.
A 2026 meta-analysis published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly, reviewing 65 studies in English and Chinese from 2000 forward, reports, “There is growing evidence demonstrating that father involvement is closely and positively linked to children’s social-emotional development, playing a crucial role in fostering emotional well-being, social competence, and emotion regulation in early childhood.”
And a 2025 study conducted jointly by the University of Virginia and the National Center for Black Family Life at Hampton University documents how boys and girls “are more likely to flourish — to do well in school, enjoy greater emotional and relational well-being, avoid poverty and avoid trouble with authorities — when they have active and engaged fathers” in their lives.
These scholars also tell us, “What’s more: men are more likely to thrive themselves when they have active relationships with their own children.”
A large and robust body of university-based research continues to inform us how indispensable fathers are in the lives of their children. His importance extends far beyond fertilization. His children need him every day, for their psychological, emotional, academic, physiological and verbal development. Every community is enriched in innumerable ways when the level of fatherhood involvement grows, rather than declines. We should make sure everyone appreciates just how true this is.
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