Hormonal changes among fathers and their impact on child development and relationship quality

父亲的荷尔蒙变化及其对儿童发展和关系质量的影响

• 批准号: 1317133
• 负责人: Christopher Kuzawa
• 金额: $ 30.58万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-08-15 至 2016-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1317133&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Hormonal; changes; among; fathers; their

Research has shown that in some societies fathers have lower testosterone levels than non-fathers. Recent research by the investigators conducting this project was the first to use data collected over multiple years to show that it is the transition to married life and first-time fatherhood which causes large declines in testosterone, compared to if men remain single and childless. These decreases in testosterone in new fathers and married men have been hypothesized to improve men's functioning as parents and spouses, but this has yet to be thoroughly tested, and it is known that not all men who become married or have children experience substantial decreases in testosterone. This variation across men in their hormonal responses might be linked to differences in mens roles across professional, social, and familial (including nuclear and extended kin) lives. To clarify the behavioral effects of these hormonal changes, their variation across men, and how these hormonal aspects impact child well-being and relationship quality requires that men and their families be followed through time. This project will explore these questions among 908 men, their spouses, and children participating in a unique study in the Philippines that has followed a large sample of families for 30 years. Demographic, health, behavioral, and relationship data will be collected through interviews with men and their spouses. Parents will provide child well-being and development data, and men's testosterone will be measured in saliva samples. By correlating hormone levels with detailed reports of men's familial, professional, and social behaviors and comparing with outcomes related to child well-being and family relationships, this study will help clarify the importance of men's biology to the functioning of families. This project also expands understanding of the ways in which behavior and biology differ between individuals and across cultural groups by contributing important insights into the range of human diversity in fathering/marital behaviors and their relationships to male hormonal profiles. In achieving these goals, the project will be central to an integrative graduate/undergraduate training program in human biology at Northwestern University, and will broadly and positively impact productive international scientific collaboration between scholars and universities in the United States and the Philippines.

研究表明，在某些社会中，父亲的睾丸激素水平低于非父亲。 进行该项目的研究人员最近的研究首次使用多年收集的数据表明，与男性保持单身和无子女相比，向婚姻生活和首次父亲身份的过渡会导致睾丸激素大幅下降。 新父亲和已婚男性睾丸激素的减少被假设为改善男性作为父母和配偶的功能，但这还没有得到彻底的测试，并且众所周知，并非所有已婚或有孩子的男性都经历睾丸激素的大幅下降。 男性荷尔蒙反应的这种差异可能与男性在职业，社会和家庭（包括核心和扩展亲属）生活中的角色差异有关。为了澄清这些荷尔蒙变化的行为影响，它们在男性中的变化，以及这些荷尔蒙方面如何影响孩子的健康和关系质量，需要对男性及其家庭进行长期跟踪。该项目将探讨这些问题的908名男子，他们的配偶，和孩子参加了一个独特的研究，在菲律宾，已经跟踪了30年的大样本的家庭。将通过与男性及其配偶的访谈收集人口统计学、健康、行为和关系数据。父母将提供孩子的健康和发育数据，男性的睾丸激素将在唾液样本中测量。 通过将激素水平与男性的家庭，职业和社会行为的详细报告相关联，并与儿童福祉和家庭关系相关的结果进行比较，这项研究将有助于澄清男性生物学对家庭功能的重要性。该项目还扩大了对行为和生物学在个人之间和跨文化群体之间存在差异的方式的理解，通过对人类在父亲/婚姻行为及其与男性荷尔蒙分布的关系方面的多样性的重要见解。 在实现这些目标的过程中，该项目将成为西北大学人类生物学综合研究生/本科生培训计划的核心，并将广泛而积极地影响美国和菲律宾学者和大学之间富有成效的国际科学合作。