title: Paternal care may influence perceptions of paternal resemblance.
abstract: Father-child resemblance is increasingly attracting attention from researchers interested in studying paternal investment. The current study sought to determine whether a quasi-experimental infant massage intervention would increase father's perceptions of resemblance. The study included a dozen fathers in each of two groups: the first received an intensive series of lessons on infant-father massage along with their infants, while the second group served as a neutral control. We failed to find significant correlations between paternal investment and resemblance, but we found that fathers who participated in the infant massage intervention reported significantly larger post-study ratings of resemblance and lower ratings of paternal stress. This suggests that the relationship between father-child resemblance and paternal investment may be bidirectional.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Youth Studies, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. tvolk@brocku.ca
authors.forename: Anthony A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Volk
authors.forename: Carolynn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Darrell-Cheng
authors.forename: Zopito A
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Marini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003463:Cues; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010332:Paternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D010465:Perception; D057566:Self Report; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D055815:Young Adult