FCHIP 2025 Fathers Day Report
Authors: Anna Haigh, Timothy Chiu, Candace Jarzombek, Clarissa Simon, and Craig Garfield
Introduction
Amid an exciting year for the Family & Child Health Innovations Program, with multiple recent publications, fatherhood survey expansion, and international recognition, we return with our fifth annual Father’s Day Report. Here, we will begin with a focus on a few of the projects the team has championed over this past year and highlight recent research and initiatives relating to paternal mental health. Then we will ground our reflection in an understanding of cultural differences and what we can learn as we look around the world at this shared phenomenon that is fatherhood.
PRAMS for Dads
An ongoing initiative from FCHIP has been development of the Pregnancy Risk Assessment System for Dads (PRAMS for Dads) to monitor the health and wellbeing of dads during the transition to fatherhood. This is the first public health survey of new fathers and, since its advent in 2018-2019, has provided actionable health data to inform a variety of state fatherhood health innovations.
The system has been implemented in five states (Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, and North Dakota) and is in the process of being rolled out in Maine, Wisconsin, and New Jersey. To learn more about our work in Maine, view the recent press release from our partners at the John T. Gorman Foundation. Our work has shed light on important topics in paternal health and been linked to maternal data, allowing for it to be framed in the context of the family unit. We are focused on sharing data findings with current sites while also connecting with new sites to expand through conferences such as the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP). Over the past year, this has resulted in several research publications and new partnerships.
Using PRAMS for Dads data, the team looked at associations between fathers’ work leave and infant breastfeeding in a paper published earlier this year in BMC Public Health. Although breastfeeding provides a variety of maternal and child benefits, breastfeeding rates remain suboptimal. The cross-sectional study showed that fathers who took 2 weeks or more of leave reported higher rates of infant breastfeeding at 8 weeks compared with those who took less than 2 weeks of leave, when adjusted for other factors. These findings add to the growing body of evidence of family health benefits obtained from parental leave, highlighting room for improvement in policy – particularly in the United States, where the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave with no mandatory paid leave. As of April 2022, all 38 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries except the U.S. offer paid maternity and paternity leave around childbirth, with an average of 18.5 weeks for mothers and 2.3 weeks for fathers. On a larger scale, a 2023 release from the World Policy Analysis Center reported that sixty-three percent of countries around the world provide guaranteed paid parental leave for fathers.
Additionally, again using the Georgia PRAMS data, we examined paternal health and health behaviors for a paper in the Maternal and Child Health Journal. FCHIP researchers investigated the associations between paternal sociodemographic characteristics, healthcare utilization, and self-reported health status. We found that 53.9% of respondents reported having a primary care physician, 46.2% reported any healthcare visits, and 65.2% reported very good or excellent health. Men typically have lower healthcare engagement and utilization compared with women, but the perinatal period may be an opportune time to intervene and increase these rates for the health benefits of new fathers. It is important to know where we stand as we look to develop strategies to address barriers to healthcare utilization and the overall health of fathers and families.
Dr. Cameron Boyd: Father Support and Skin-to-Skin Care
Cameron Boyd, MD
FCHIP is proud to highlight Dr. Cameron Boyd (pictured), a third-year Neonatology fellow at Northwestern University, in this 2024 Father’s Day Report. During his fellowship, Dr. Boyd has conducted impactful research on paternal skin-to-skin care (SSC) and co-developed a monthly in-person NICU Dads’ Group with Dr. Craig Garfield, supporting fathers’ emotional well-being through peer connection and shared experience while in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Dr. Boyd’s research was selected for a platform presentation at the 2025 Northwestern University and Lurie Children’s Research Scholar Day, where he received the Judges’ Award in Healthcare Disparities. He was also honored with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Organization of Neonatal Training Program Directors (ONTPD) Fellows Research Poster Award at the 2025 PAS Conference for his poster titled Disparities in NICU Skin-to-Skin Care by Parental Race, Ethnicity, and Sex. Looking retrospectively at 5 years of data, this study identified disparities in SSC by parental race, ethnicity, and sex: parents of color experienced fewer SSC events and longer delays to first contact, and fathers consistently had fewer and later SSC interactions compared to mothers across all gestational ages. These findings underscore early inequities in NICU family engagement and highlight the need for more inclusive, staff-informed SSC practices within family-centered care.
To further address the emotional needs of NICU fathers, Dr. Boyd co-facilitated the monthly in-person Dads’ Group with Dr. Garfield. These sessions offered introductions, refreshments, peer support, and educational content tailored to the NICU father experience. Post-session surveys revealed meaningful improvements in emotional awareness, self-care, and involvement in infant care. One father shared, “The dads’ group was the single most helpful thing in my NICU journey.” Notably, 100% of participants said they would recommend the group to other NICU dads—a testament to its power and impact.
Dr. Boyd has since helped expand a new NICU Dads Group at Lurie Children’s. He has also presented at national conferences to raise awareness and advocate for stronger, more inclusive support systems for fathers in the NICU. We are grateful to Dr. Boyd and his colleagues for their exceptional efforts to create a more equitable and supportive neonatal care environment for all families.
Fathers Across Cultures
As we celebrate all fathers and paternal figures this Father’s Day, we focus on fathers from all different cultures and backgrounds to view how fatherhood looks all around the world. For example, a recent study in the Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies found differences in the ways that fathers in “collectivist” and “individualist” cultures approach fatherhood. In a systematic review of 35 papers, researchers found that in collectivist cultures – cultures where a group or community’s needs are prioritized over individuals such as in Indonesia, Guatemala, and Malaysia – father’s roles are typically defined as breadwinner and authoritarian (characterized as demanding, cold, distant). In contrast, fathers in individualist cultures – cultures that emphasize individuals’ needs over groups such as the United States, England, and Australia – typically take up more child-rearing roles while being more authoritative (characterized as demanding, supportive, close). The researchers also report that fathers in many cultures have moved toward more individualist approaches, especially as more mothers return to or enter the workforce.
Furthermore, having a unique term in a culture to define or describe fatherhood benefits people in that culture. For example, “Guan” in Chinese refers to the “process of teaching and educating children in proper or expected behaviors out of care and concern for children,” which has been an important cultural value in Chinese father’s approaches to parenting. Similarly, an important value in Latino cultures is “Respeto” or the idea that “parents have the authority to expect and demand positive behavior from their children and that children should obey and defer to their parents.” In more recent contexts, terms such as “Ikumen” or “Hunky dads” in Japan and “latte papas” in Sweden have reflected cultural changes in fatherhood, with both terms referring to movements toward greater paternal influence in child-rearing. Along with many more values and approaches unique to each culture, these terms are able to illustrate the varied and nuanced ways that fatherhood is practiced throughout the world.
In a broader sense, from the State of the World’s Fathers report by Equimundo to the Ten to Men program in Australia to research on fatherhood in China and the state of fathers in Nordic countries to PRAMS for Dads here at Lurie Children's, the global movement towards researching fatherhood within family health continues to expand. From researching fathers’ mental health to discovering how fatherhood impacts fathers themselves, there has been an incredible push towards gaining a better picture of paternal health around the world. In continuing to research fathers across cultures, we can better understand the health and experiences of all fathers and families.
