For a long time, popular wisdom and, why not say it, some scientific texts have linked male behavior with that irrepressible and macho hormone that is testosterone. The human male, like those of other animal species, would thus be driven to seek a partner, practice sex and compete with other congeners by biochemical mandate. Testosterone,? A stupid hormone ?, as it came to be baptized, was one of the main reasons why man behaved “like a man.”
Fortunately, today we know that things are not like that and that the label “behaving like a man” also includes tenderness, sensitivity and parental-child affection. Especially the latter, because recent research in the field of psychobiology has shown that men also have a paternal instinct similar to the female maternal instinct . And interestingly, testosterone has a lot to say in its upwelling.
Although she is not the only hormone involved in happy parenting. A whole range of substances work together to ensure that the male not only has the desire to mate but also yearns to take care of the offspring , take care of it and maintain it and that all this generates in him a cascade of positive emotions as natural as those of the mother.
Estradiol
A study published in 2001 by the journalMayo Clinic Proceedingsshowed that future parents have higher levels ofestradiol(a type of estrogen) and less testosterone than men who are not expecting children. Furthermore, men whose partners are pregnant experience hormonal changes that are activated simultaneously with those of the pregnant woman and that, in some extreme cases, can produce physical symptoms such as nausea and weight gain.
Estradiol is a substance that intervenes in the maternal behavior of women, non-human primates and other mammals. Until now, no animal has been detected in males also responding to parenthood with significant increases in this hormone. Interestingly, estradiol seems to be a key element in pre-maternity (periods of pregnancy), since in the last month before delivery, its levels tend to return to normal. Is it that nature is trying to prepare man to be a good father?
To answer this question, it would be useful to know how other chemicals in the male body behave in the face of impending fatherhood. Theglucocorticoids, hormones of the cortisol family, decrease considerably when the man knows that he is going to be a father. It has been shown that people who live in a stable relationship and enjoy greater social or family reinforcement have lower levels of this substance than those who live alone or in unstable couples. In the last month of a woman’s pregnancy, there is an increase in the amount of glucocorticoids in her partner, perhaps as a response to the increased stress and apprehension typical of those moments that are so important in her life.
In addition to these changes, the body of the man who is going to be a father undergoes other transformations related to the state of his partner. For example, a study by Dr. Anne Storey of the University of Newfoundland in Canada has shown thatpre-dads experience an increase in detectable amounts of prolactin, a hormone involved in the development of the ability to breastfeed in women and in the females of many mammals.
More stable behavior
Dr. Storey speculates that the woman’s state of pregnancy generates certain signals that indicate to the male body that it has to prepare to have a child at home.Testosterone drops to promote more stable behavior, less aggressive and less sexual in the male, while cortisols and prolactins pave the way for a temperamentmore tender and solicitous.What kind of signs are those? According to Storey, it is possible that they are olfactory stimuli sent through pheromones or, simply, changes in the behavior of the woman that give the keys to the biochemistry of the man.
The same Canadian team asked fathers to report on the changes they experienced in their daily lives during their wives’ pregnancy. Individuals who suffered the most fatigue, weight gain, and poor appetite had the highest prolactin levels in the analyzes. Some kind of pregnancy out of sympathy? Storey explains:? We believe that the hormonal levels of women depend on their state of pregnancy and the hormonal levels of men depend on those of their partner.?
The presence of the pregnant woman is not the only stimulus for the paternal instinct to emerge. Other studies with men without children have shown that after several minutes of watching a videotape of images of babies and children playing, cortisol levels in the blood drop dramatically.
It seems clear that men are biologically prepared to be fathers and that this natural preparation is written in the behavior of some of their hormones. Scientists know that hormonal activity can vary based on behavioral or environmental changes. Work stress, flirting, sports … are some situations that generate bio-psychological modifications. Why shouldn’t the same thing happen with an experience as important to the life of a human being as the birth of a child?
Acts of parenting such as holding a baby, listening to a cry or kissing a child not only leave a psychological imprint on those who enjoy them, but also have their own physiological repercussions.A classic experiment to demonstrate this is to have male volunteers hold dolls for half an hourwearing diapers that have been used by babies. Testosterone levels decrease in the cases of men who have shown a previous desire to be fathers. When the experiment is carried out with one’s own children, the variation in the data is much greater.
A partial and somewhat cynical review of these data could lead to the conclusion that fatherhood suffocates the masculinity of the individual, that is, feminizes them, by controlling testosterone. But the authors of these investigations believe that, on the contrary, these data demonstrate that the masculinity of the human gender resides in other abilities beyond those that its sex hormone confers on it. The entire chemical spectrum of man is made available to you at one point in your life so that you can experience the widest range of emotions and show that you are a good father by nature.
What is a father for?
The importance of the mother in the development of the child, from infancy to maturity, has been extensively studied. The role of women is decisive in the formation of a physically and psychologically healthy individual. But what role does the father play?
If we attend to the lastpsychological studies on the parent-child relationshipWe have no choice but to recognize that parents are of great use. At least, of this they are convinced the students of human behavior who have dedicated themselves to relate the amount of benefits that fatherhood brings to the family, to the children, to the wives and, of course, to the parents themselves.
We have reviewed the most recent reports on the physical and mental health of the Western family to summarize some of the virtues of being a father, being a son, living with a father or wanting to have children. Most of the studies that have led to these results are studies of volunteer families from all over the world who have been followed by evolution for a certain time.
Statistics show thatmen who live alone are at higher risk of committing suicide than those who live with someone. But this isolated piece of information would not be sufficient to establish any direct benefits of paternity. Some studies, however, do link thebrood rearingwith adecrease in cases of anxiety and stress, although it seems paradoxical. Men who are more involved in the daily tasks of educating, caring for, cleaning and feeding their offspring have been shown to have lower levels of stress. Perhaps because, even today, the main source of tension is the work environment and parenting requires extreme concentration on matters very different from those that usually trouble the working man.
Some psychologists have detected a certain influence of marriage in reducing levels of depression. Being married is, for both men and women, a protection against this evil. However, in the case of offspring, things change. One of the population segments most at risk of suffering from depression is mothers with young children, while fathers show just the opposite trend.
Fatherhood even has a quasi-clinical effect on some personal conflicts. According to James Levine, director of the Manhattan Fatherhood Project, “many men relive their biographical experiences as their children grow older. Correct control of parental emotions can lead to the healing of wounds suffered in childhood or youth by the father.? Perhaps this is the reason that explains why many men reconcile emotionally with their parents after having made them grandparents.
But, without a doubt, the ones who benefit the most from Daddy’s presence are the children. All research shows that parents, regardless of their social, cultural or economic status, can play a game.critical role in your children’s development. When the father takes responsibility for the upbringing on equal terms with the mother, the child learns more, enjoys greater academic success and exhibits healthier behavior than when it is only the mother who performs that function. This has an effect even in the cases of separated parents who do not share a home with their offspring, but follow their evolution closely and care about their care.
Children see in their father a model of behavior and socialization and often repeat some of the extreme behaviors (good or bad) that they perceive through them.
In the case of parents who regularly attend their children’s school activities and are interested in the type of education they receive, it has been shown that children return home with higher average grades. In the ranking of possible influences on the academic life of a child, the presence of the father is at the top next to that of the mother and above other factors such as the economic situation of the family, ethnic origin, academic level parents and the geosocial environment where the school is.
Studies seem to reveal four key aspects in which the father’s work is more noticeable: children who receive support from dad have better grades, are less likely to fail courses, participate in more extracurricular activities and have a better time in school .
The range of tools that the father uses to exert his influence is immense, from the caress to the baby, to the dialectical fight with the adolescent. It has been shown that paternal and maternal physical contact not only strengthens the child psychologically but also has positive effects on his immune system , on his ability to recover from illness and on his resistance to pain. On the other hand, the parental-child confrontation of ideas has extraordinary effects on the development of dialectical and cognitive skills and on the reinforcement of self-esteem, especially in periods as critical for the evolution of the individual’s psyche as puberty.
It is clear, the father is a great invention for humanity . And that Sigmund Freud proposed to kill him, if only symbolically!
