Effects of Turkish fathers’ gender role attitudes, marital adjustment, and maternal attachment on prenatal paternal attachment in third trimester

The paternal attachment that fathers establish with their infants during pregnancy forms the basis of postnatal relationships and strongly affects the dynamics within the family. The present study was conducted to determine the effects of fathers' gender role attitudes, marital adjustment, and maternal attachment on prenatal paternal attachment in the third trimester in Turkiye. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between January and November 2023 and included 255 fathers whose partner was between 28 and 40 weeks old and who had a healthy pregnancy and their partners in the obstetric outpatient clinic of one of the most advanced university hospitals. The relevant data for the study were collected via the "Descriptive Characteristics Form," "Gender Role Attitudes Scale," "Marital Adjustment Scale," "Prenatal Attachment Inventory," and "Paternal Antenatal Attachment Scale." The descriptive characteristics data form was completed by the fathers, the gender role attitudes scale, the marital adjustment scale, and the prenatal attachment scale were completed by the fathers, and the prenatal attachment inventory was completed by their partners. Descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, one-way ANOVA, the Bonferroni correction, post hoc tests, and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data. Among the descriptive characteristics evaluated, paternal age (<i>p</i> = .075) and perceived economic status (<i>p</i> = .216) were not revealed to have any effect on prenatal paternal attachment. Gender role attitudes (<i>p</i> = .238) and maternal attachment (<i>p</i> = .178) also had no effect on paternal attachment. Marital adjustment affected prenatal paternal attachment (<i>p</i> = .000). Since marital adjustment was found to be effective on paternal attachment in this study, it is recommended that this variable be integrated into prenatal care practices.