magazine issue 2 2025 / Issue 58

The Psychology Behind Being a Dad and its Effects on Fathers Themselves

• written by Gustaf Glavå
• edited by Sameeksha Shukla

Editorial Assistants: Sameeksha Shukla and Elena Benini.

Figure 1

Father involvement in childcare has increased dramatically over the past four decades, with modern fathers playing more active roles in both physical and developmental tasks. While much research has explored how this involvement impacts children's development, less is known about how fatherhood affects fathers themselves, particularly over the long term. To increase and aid fathers’ parental involvement, it is important to understand the psychology of fathers’ parenting from a long-term perspective [1]. Theories on lifespan psychology describe human development as a lifelong process of adaptation [2]. As such, development involves a continuum of growth, stability, and decline throughout the lifespan. A person selects high- priority domains, tasks, or goals to optimize psychological functioning in these domains[2]. Parenthood is without doubt one such potential priority domain with vast consequences for the parent themselves. Key driving forces when individuals enact the priority of parenthood are the identities and roles associated with it.

Father Identity and Father Roles

Parenthood is not inherently gendered or tied to biological sex in its core functions. That is, the core functions and traits of a parent, such as being loving, present, supportive and engaged etc. have little or nothing to do with gender or sex. At the same time, social norms and expectations have created gendered identities, roles and attributes associated with being a parent. Therefore, father involvement and transitions throughout parenthood may be understood in terms of the psychology of being a father which concern behaviors and identities associated with the father role [3]. In turn, the concept of father role can be used to understand fathers’ own experiences of fatherhood and its transitions as well as how it affects fathers themselves. Father role, as I use it here, refer to the psychological function of being a father that a person may have in a particular context and phase of parenthood [4]. The role of being a father is inherently social as it is fulfilled in relation to other people and derived from social norms in each context. The father enacts his father role by doing behaviors that are expected of someone that have been ascribed or achieved the social function of being a father. But his role is also informed by his own meaning of being a father [3].
Closely related to the term father role is the concept father identity, which has roots in several theoretical perspectives. Identity, as I use it here, refer to individuals’ conscious sense of who they are. A person may be described as having a father identity when being a father is a part of that person’s sense of self and that it guides his behavior accordingly [3]. In turn, a father identity is derived from the characteristics and commitments associated with a father role in a particular context[4], but also from the meaning and experiences of the father role that the father himself ascribes to it – his self-meaning of being a father [3]. Arguably, both a person’s parental role and identity are situated within that person’s developmental phase but also in relation to their phase of parenthood. For example, parents in late adulthood are subjects to processes of reviewing their life which in turn is linked to how they view and enact their parental role. But the role is also informed by the changing needs of the child and by norms. Thus, the father’s roles and identities transform and transitions into new roles and identities in conjunction with both the fathers and the child’s development, but also in relation to changing norms. At this point, you might wonder how fathers’ themselves experience their parenting and father identity? That is, how can we understand fathers’ sense of self as fathers?
One of the few extensive empirical studies on father involvement from fathers’ own perspectives identified role descriptions such as provider, being a loving father, being there, being a model, acting as a teacher and moral guide [5]. These results have been confirmed by subsequent studies that identified roles such as teacher[6], being supportive [6], [7], being available [8], being authoritarian [6] or strict and providing security [6]. Recent research reveals that fatherhood is a lifelong journey of presence, support, and adaptability. By interviewing 93 fathers in late adulthood, researchers found that many core aspects of parenting – such as being engaged, available, and involved – remain steady from a child’s early years through adulthood [7]. Interestingly, fathers in hindsight emphasized a “soft” approach to parenting, they also valued balance between involvement and their children’s independence.
Having presented various father roles and identities I would like to move forward and suggest how the identities, roles and associated behaviors relate to fathers’ own psychological development.

Figure 2

Father Involvement and how it Shapes Fathers Themselves

It is important understand fathers’ parenting from a long-term perspective since it is of substantial importance for child development [4], but also since it affects the father himself [1]. Human development is a lifelong process of adaptation in which behaviors, cognition, and emotion are adjusted in relation to the changing context [2]. Arguably, parenting is a major area of such lifelong adaption. Research concerning how father involvement may shape fathers themselves has suggested that father identity is related to fathers’ own behaviors and psychological health. For example, engagement with one’s child may strengthen the father identity [8]. The reversed relationship has also been suggested – that father identity play a significant role in both parenting behaviors such as selfless care and concern but also in fathers own well-being [9]. Along these lines, an extensive in-depth study on men’s development in relation to their role as fathers suggested a close link between involved fathering and healthy adult development [5]. It has also been suggested that fathers who identify strongly with the role of nurturer seem to be more involved with their children by interaction and taking responsibility for the child [10]. Commitment to the father identity is also associated with the enactment of behaviors such as providing, nurturing, and teaching [11].
Taking a developmental perspective of psychological benefits of being an engaged father, father identity has been suggested to be related to generativity [12]. Generativity is defined as the concern for the well-being of others and especially younger generations and have been used as a measure of healthy psychological adult development [13]. In accordance with theory, fathering behaviors such as selfless care and concern have been associated with well-being and the development of generativity [14]. It is important to stress that generativity is not related to being a parent per se. Those who do not have children can fulfill their generative task by performing other altruistic and care-related activities in relation to younger generations. However, the term “generative father” has been used to conceptualize the association between generativity and fatherhood [15]. Generative father refers to different aspects of how fathers contribute to future generations by the care and childrearing they provide to their children (biological and parental generativity), but also cultural contributions and contributions to society (societal generativity) [15]. While generativity has a much wider application than parenting, it is a developmental task closely related to parenting behaviors and concerns since it implies caring and investing in future generations – a group to which a parent’s children and grandchildren belong. While much is known about the long-term impact of early father involvement on children’s development, knowledge on the long-term development of father involvement and its relation to the development and well-being, of fathers themselves is scarce. Therefore, to examine the relationship between father involvement in childhood and how it relates to father’s involvement, well-being, and generativity in late adulthood would provide new insights with potential clinical and policy applications. The long-term psychological effects of fatherhood may vary across different contexts, such as cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Future research could further explore these effects for fathers themselves across diverse cultural, socioeconomic, and generational contexts. Understanding these variations can provide deeper insights into how fatherhood influences mental health and well-being over time for fathers themselves.

Figure 3

Conclusion

Yes, becoming a father may enhance the father’s own psychological development and well-being, but even more importantly benefit his surrounding through generative behaviors. Understanding why this is so, we need to consider a complex mixture of identity, role engagement and how these psychological aspects of parenthood are deeply embedded in –and a consequence of – their social context. Deepening this knowledge is a task for future research. This scoping review provides a broad overview of research concerning the implications of fatherhood for fathers own psychology. The pragmatic inclusion of papers in a scoping review ensures the selection of relevant studies that offer practical insights and comprehensive coverage of the topic, while remaining feasible and manageable within the review's scope. However, the results are limited to this method and are not exhaustive.

Bibliography

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Figure Sources

The figures were retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/ and https://unsplash.com/s/photos/ websites.