Project Details
Projekt
Fathers‘ experiences with traumatic childbirth events: Neural and psychological consequences
Subject Area
Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 565397130
Apart from being a moment of great joy, giving birth to a child can also be a traumatic event for parents. Unexpected situations, in particular in the context of medical complications, can lead to actual or perceived life-threatening events for mothers and their child. While previous research focused on the consequences for mental health in concerned mothers, neural and psychological consequences for fathers remain largely unclear so far. The present study aims at closing this gap by investigating consequences of traumatic child birth events in fathers on a neural and on a psychological level three months after birth of their child. Specifically, the study will be focusing on neural responses associated with emotion regulation during the presentation of negative emotional child and partner stimuli and of explicitly trauma-related stimuli as well as on alterations of stress and bonding associated neuroendocrine outcomes, namely cortisol and oxytocin responses. Considering the possible and highly relevant impact of fathers’ long-term post-traumatic symptomatology on father-child bonding, fathers’ psychopathology and father-child bonding will be investigated longitudinally nine and twelve months after birth of the child. Results of the study have the potential to increase our understanding of fathers’ mental health responses to traumatic child birth events and to identify potential target factors for future strategies of prevention and intervention.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
