1. Andrea Doucet, Do Men Mother? Fathering, Care, and Parental Responsibilities (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006), 215.

2. See also Paul Raeburn, Do Fathers Matter? What Science Tells Us about the Parent We’ve Overlooked (New York: Scientific American and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014).

3. Neil Gillman, Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 229.

4. Erastus Snow, in Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855–86), 19:270 (March 3, 1878).

5. Bruce D. Porter, “Defending the Family in a Troubled World,” Ensign 41, no. 6 (June 2011): 13.

6. Boyd K. Packer, “For Time and All Eternity,” Ensign 23, no. 11 (November 1993): 21.

7. Richard G. Scott, “The Joy of Living the Great Plan of Happiness,” Ensign 26, no. 11 (November 1996): 73–74.

8. David A. Bednar, “Marriage Is Essential to His Eternal Plan,” Ensign 36, no. 6 (June 2006): 83–84.

9. Linda K. Burton, “We’ll Ascend Together,” Ensign 45, no. 5 (May 2015): 30, emphasis original.

10. Sheri L. Dew, “It Is Not Good for Man or Woman to Be Alone,” Ensign 31, no. 11 (November 2001): 13.

11. Spencer W. Kimball, “Relief Society—Its Promise and Potential,” Ensign 6, no. 3 (March 1976): 5.

12. Judith Stacey, quoted in Allison Hope, “Don’t Fall into the Nuclear Family ‘Parent Trap’: What Kids Need Most Is Love,” July 14, 2021, CNN Health, accessed March 31, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/14/health/kids-parents-love-wellness-opinion/index.html; see also Timothy J. Biblarz and Judith Stacey, “How Does the Gender of Parents Matter?,” Journal of Marriage and Family 72, no. 1 (February 2010): 3–22.

13. Bednar, “Marriage Is Essential to His Eternal Plan,” 84; Scott, “Joy of Living the Great Plan of Happiness,” 74.

14. Ross D. Parke, “Gender Differences and Similarities in Parental Behaviors,” in Gender and Parenthood: Biological and Social Scientific Perspectives, ed. W. Bradford Wilcox and Kathleen Kovner Kline (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013), 135.

15. Parke, “Gender Differences and Similarities,” 121–63.

16. Bednar, “Marriage Is Essential to His Eternal Plan,” 84; Scott, “Joy of Living the Great Plan of Happiness,” 74.

17. The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Ensign 25, no. 11 (November 1995): 102.

18. Parke, “Gender Differences and Similarities,” 120–63.

19. Marc H. Bornstein, “Parenting x Gender x Culture x Time,” in Wilcox and Kline, Gender and Parenthood, 92.

20. Parke, “Gender Differences and Similarities,” 123.

21. Allan N. Schore, Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994), 3.

22. Schore, Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self, 373–75.

23. Allan N. Schore, “Effects of a Secure Attachment Relationship on Right Brain Development, Affect Regulation, and Infant Mental Health,” Infant Mental Health Journal 22, nos. 1–2 (2001): 7–66; Allan N. Schore, “Modern Attachment Theory: The Enduring Impact of Early Right-brain Development,” October 27, 2016, lecture, Roots of Empathy Research Symposium, 49:06, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0sKY86Qmzo.

24. “Brain Architecture,” Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, accessed April 5, 2023, https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/brain-architecture/.

25. Robert Winston and Rebecca Chicot, “The Importance of Early Bonding on the Long-term Mental Health and Resilience of Children,” London Journal of Primary Care 8, no. 1 (2016): 12; Allan N. Schore, “The First 1000 Days of Life: A Critical Period for Shaping our Emotional Selves and Social Brains,” September 29, 2017, university lecture, UCLA David Geffin School of Medicine, Oslo, Norway, 1:51:54, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY7XOu0yi-E.

26. Allan N. Schore, “The Most Important Years of Life: Our Beginnings,” September 18, 2014, university lecture, UCLA David Geffin School of Medicine, Oslo, Norway, 1:36:37, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnyMD_aARvI.

27. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network, “Does Amount of Time Spent in Child Care Predict Socialemotional Adjustment during the Transition to Kindergarten?,” Child Development 74, no. 4 (July–August 2003): 992.

28. Schore, Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self, 76.

29. Kathleen K. Kline and Brian Stafford, “Essential Elements of the Caretaking Crucible,” in Wilcox and Kline, Gender and Parenthood, 203.

30. Inge Bretherton and Kristine A. Munholland, “Internal Working Models in Attachment Relationships,” in Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications, ed. Jude Cassidy and Phillip R. Shaver, 2nd ed. (New York: The Guilford Press, 2008), 102–27.

31. Ross A. Thompson, “Early Attachment and Later Development,” in Cassidy and Shaver, Handbook of Attachment, 348–65.

32. L. Alan Sroufe, Elizabeth Carlson, and Shmuel Shulman, “Individuals in Relationships: Development from Infancy through Adolescence,” in Studying Lives through Time: Personality and Development, ed. David C. Funder and others (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1993), 315–42.

33. L. Alan Sroufe and others, “Implications of Attachment Theory for Developmental Psychopathology,” Development and Psychopathology 11, no. 1 (1999): 1.

34. David F. Bjorklund and Ashley C. Jordan, “Human Parenting from an Evolutionary Perspective,” in Wilcox and Kline, Gender and Parenthood, 68.

35. Bjorklund and Jordan, “Human Parenting from an Evolutionary Perspective,” 68.

36. Parke, “Gender Differences and Similarities,” 123.

37. Rebecca J. Erickson, “Why Emotion Work Matters: Sex, Gender, and the Division of Household Labor,” Journal of Marriage and Family 67, no. 2 (May 2005): 337–51.

38. Susanne A. Denham and others, “Prediction of Externalizing Behavior Problems from Early to Middle Childhood: The Role of Parental Socialization and Emotion Expression,” Development and Psychopathology 12, no. 1 (2000): 40.

39. Schore, “First 1000 Days of Life.”

40. Anne E. Storey and others, “Hormonal Correlates of Paternal Responsiveness in New and Expectant Fathers,” Evolution and Human Behavior 21, no. 2 (2000): 79–95.

41. Ilanit Gordon and others, “Oxytocin and the Development of Parenting in Humans,” Biological Psychiatry 68, no. 4 (2010): 377–82.

42. Lisa Belkin, “Why Mothers and Fathers Play Differently,” New York Times, September 2, 2010, https://archive.nytimes.com/parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/why-mothers-and-fathers-play-differently/.

43. Bornstein, “Parenting x Gender x Culture x Time,” 100.

44. Bjorklund and Jordan, “Human Parenting from an Evolutionary Perspective,” 66.

45. Bjorklund and Jordan, “Human Parenting from an Evolutionary Perspective,” 67.

46. Jay Belsky, Bonnie Gilstrap, and Michael Rovine, “The Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project: I. Stability and Change in Mother-Infant and Father-Infant Interaction in a Family Setting at One, Three, and Nine Months,” Child Development 55, no. 3 (June 1984): 692–705.

47. Bjorklund and Jordan, “Human Parenting from an Evolutionary Perspective,” 71.

48. David J. Eggebeen, “Do Fathers Matter for Adolescent Well-Being?,” in Wilcox and Kline, Gender and Parenthood, 249.

49. David Popenoe, Life without Father: Compelling New Evidence That Fatherhood and Marriage Are Indispensable for the Good of Children and Society (New York: The Free Press, 1996), 163.

50. Parke, “Gender Differences and Similarities,” 131–33.

51. See Kyle Pruett and Marsha Kline Pruett, Partnership Parenting: How Men and Women Parent Differently—Why It Helps Your Kids and Can Strengthen Your Marriage (Philadelphia: Da Capo Books, 2009), 23–58.

52. Richard Koestner, Carol Franz, and Joel Weinberger, “The Family Origins of Empathic Concern: A 26-Year Longitudinal Study,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58, no. 4 (1990): 709–17.

53. Paul R. Amato and Fernando Rivera, “Paternal Involvement and Children’s Behavior Problems,” Journal of Marriage and Family 61, no. 2 (May 1999): 375–84.

54. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark and Erdal Tekin, “Fathers and Youth’s Delinquent Behavior,” Review of Economics of the Household 12, no. 2 (2011): 327–58.

55. Pruett and Pruett, Partnership Parenting, 162–63.

56. Parke, “Gender Differences and Similarities,” 128–29.

57. Craig H. Hart and others, “Overt and Relational Aggression in Russian Nursery-School-Age Children: Parenting Style and Marital Linkages,” Developmental Psychology 34, no. 4 (1998): 687–97.

58. Jeffrey Rosenberg and W. Bradford Wilcox, The Importance of Fathers in the Healthy Development of Children (Washington, D.C.: Department of Heath and Human Services, Children’s Bureau, 2006), 13.

59. Parke, “Gender Differences and Similarities,” 128.

60. Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon, A General Theory of Love (New York: Vintage Books, 2000), 61–62, emphasis original.

61. See Bjorklund and Jordan, “Human Parenting from an Evolutionary Perspective,” 61–90.

62. Benjamin G. Gibbs and Renata Forste, “Breastfeeding, Parenting, and Early Cognitive Development,” Journal of Pediatrics 164, no. 3 (2014): 487–93.

63. Parke, “Gender Differences and Similarities,” 133.

64. Laura Hubbs-Tait and others, “Relation of Maternal Cognitive Stimulation, Emotional Support, and Intrusive Behavior during Head Start to Children’s Kindergarten Cognitive Abilities” Child Development 73, no. 1 (January–February 2002): 110–31.

65. Rosenberg and Wilcox, Importance of Fathers in the Healthy Development of Children, 12.

66. Kathryn A. Leech and others, “Father Input and Child Vocabulary Development: The Importance of Wh Questions and Clarification Requests,” Seminars in Speech and Language 34, no 4, (November 2013): 249–59.

67. W. Bradford Wilcox, “Dad and the Diploma: The Difference Fathers Make for College Graduation,” April 23, 2014, Institute for Family Studies, accessed March 22, 2023, http://family-studies.org/dad-and-the-diploma-the-difference-fathers-make-for-college-graduation/.

68. Wilcox, “Dad and the Diploma.”

69. Rob Palkovitz, “Gendered Parenting’s Implications for Children’s Well-being: Theory and Research in Applied Perspective,” in Wilcox and Kline, Gender and Parenthood, 226.

70. Doucet, Do Men Mother?, 117.

71. Daniel Paquette, “Theorizing the Father-Child Relationship: Mechanisms and Developmental Outcomes,” Human Development 47, no. 4 (2004), 193–219.

72. W. Bradford Wilcox and Robin Fretwell Wilson, “One Way to End Violence against Women? Married Dads,” Washington Post, June 10, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/06/10/the-best-way-to-end-violence-against-women-stop-taking-lovers-and-get-married/.

73. Palkovitz, “Gendered Parenting’s Implications for Children’s Well-being,” 220.

74. Rosenberg and Wilcox, Importance of Fathers in the Healthy Development of Children, 13.

75. Henry B. Biller, Fathers and Families: Paternal Factors in Child Development (Boston, Mass.: Auburn House, 1993), 12.

76. Palkovitz, “Gendered Parenting’s Implications for Children’s Well-being,” 223.

77. Palkovitz, “Gendered Parenting’s Implications for Children’s Well-being,” 223, 229.

78. Commission on Children at Risk, “Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities,” in Authoritative Communities, The Search Institute Series on Developmentally Attentive Community and Society, vol. 5 (New York: Springer, 2008), 17.

79. Commission on Children at Risk, “Hardwired to Connect,” 18.

80. Commission on Children at Risk, “Hardwired to Connect,” 17.

81. Bruce J. Ellis and others, “Does Father Absence Place Daughters at Special Risk for Early Sexual Activity and Teenage Pregnancy?,” Child Development 74, no. 3, (May–June 2003): 801–21.

82. Palkovitz, “Gendered Parenting’s Implications for Children’s Well-being,” 227.

83. Raeburn, Do Fathers Matter?, 162.

84. W. Bradford Wilcox, “Father’s Day: Are Dads Really Disposable?,” Deseret News, June 14, 2012, https://www.deseret.com/2012/6/14/20503429/father-s-day-are-dads-really-disposable.

85. Popenoe, Life without Father, 156–57.

86. Wilcox, “Father’s Day.”

87. Raeburn, Do Fathers Matter?, 166.

88. David Autor and others, “Family Disadvantage and the Gender Gap in Behavioral and Educational Outcomes,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 11, no. 3 (July 2019): 338–81; W. Bradford Wilcox and Wendy Wang, “Life without Fathers: Less College, Less Work, and More Prison for Young Men Growing Up without Their Biological Father,” Institute for Family Studies, June 17, 2022, https://ifstudies.org/blog/life-without-father-less-college-less-work-and-more-prison-for-young-men-growing-up-without-their-biological-father; Wilcox, “Father’s Day.”

89. See Daniel N. Stern and Nadia Bruschweiler-Stern with Alison Freeland, The Birth of a Mother: How the Motherhood Experience Changes You Forever (New York: Basic Books, 1998).

90. Doucet, Do Men Mother?, 109–10.

91. Wilcox, “Father’s Day.”

92. “National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4),” Administration for Children and Families, accessed September 24, 2022, http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/research/project/national-incidence-study-of-child-abuse-and-neglect-nis-4-2004-2009.

93. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, “Children in Nonparental Care: Findings from the 2011–2012 National Survey of Children’s Health,” February, 28, 2014, ASPE Research Brief, accessed March 22, 2023, http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/14/ChildrenNonparentalCare/rb_nonparentalcare.pdf.

94. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, “Children in Nonparental Care.”

95. Bednar, “Marriage Is Essential to His Eternal Plan,” 84.

96. Bruce C. Hafen and Marie K. Hafen, “Crossing Thresholds and Becoming Equal Partners,” Liahona 31, no. 8 (August 2007): 30.

Jenet Jacob Erickson

BYU Studies Publications