Fathers' Parenting Determined by Mothers.

• Position: MATERNAL GATEKEEPING - Brief article

How a new mother reacts to her partner's early interactions with their baby may affect the quality of his parenting later on, suggests a study from Ohio State University, Columbus. Researchers found that fathers did not perform as well as a parent to their nine-month-old child if the dads felt their partner was critical of their parenting skills six months earlier.

The study--done with relatively affluent, highly educated dual-earner couples--is the first to show how fathers' parenting quality might be affected by "maternal gatekeeping," the term used to describe the behaviors and attitudes of mothers who may support or limit father involvement in child rearing.

"Mothers may not even be aware of how their criticisms of the father may end up negatively influencing how dads parent," says lead author Lauren...