Fathers’ involvement in early childhood is important for children's physical, emotional, and cognitive development, particularly in low-income families. However, little is known about the longitudinal relations between early father involvement and children's later physiological responses to chronic stress and behaviors impacted by stress in the context of poverty. These issues are particularly important among Latinx immigrant families who face significant psychosocial and poverty-related risk. In the current study, we examined the relationship between father involvement in infancy and physiological chronic stress in the middle childhood period, as measured through hair cortisol concentration (HCC), and several behavioral measures (attention problems, working memory) in a Latinx immigrant sample with low income. Father involvement in infancy predicted children's later HCC, and working memory in second to third grade. Father involvement also moderated the effect of HCC on working memory, such that increased HCC predicted better working memory when fathers were not involved. These findings suggest that the fathers’ involvement in infancy has lasting impacts on health and behavior and that associations between physiological and behavioral measures of stress may be moderated by differences in early father involvement.

中文翻译：

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父亲在婴儿期的参与可以预测低收入拉丁裔样本中童年中期的行为和对慢性压力的反应

父亲对幼儿期的参与对于儿童的身体、情感和认知发展非常重要，特别是在低收入家庭中。然而，人们对早期父亲的参与与儿童后来对慢性压力的生理反应以及贫困背景下受压力影响的行为之间的纵向关系知之甚少。这些问题对于面临重大心理社会和贫困相关风险的拉丁裔移民家庭尤为重要。在当前的研究中，我们通过拉丁裔移民样本中的头发皮质醇浓度（HCC）和一些行为测量（注意力问题、工作记忆）来测量父亲对婴儿期的参与与童年中期生理慢性压力之间的关系。收入低。父亲在婴儿期的参与预测了孩子后来的肝癌，以及二年级到三年级的工作记忆。父亲的参与也调节了 HCC 对工作记忆的影响，因此，当父亲不参与时，HCC 的增加预示着更好的工作记忆。这些研究结果表明，父亲在婴儿期的参与对健康和行为具有持久的影响，并且压力的生理和行为测量之间的关联可能会因父亲早期参与的差异而受到调节。