When men become fathers, their testosterone levels drop. A low level of the hormone is accompanied by more care and household chores. How strong the influence is is supposed to be related to the relationship with one's own father, reports a research group led by anthropologist Lee Gettler from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Fathers have a low testosterone level especially when their own father was already significantly involved in raising children. Puberty plays a special role in this, the study says.
The researchers analyzed data from almost 1,000 men in the Philippines from 1983 to 2014. The focus of the investigation was on infancy, middle childhood (6 to 11 years) and youth (12 to 19 years): Fathers of the participants brought into education in these phases? Did you even live with the family at the time? Saliva samples also provided information about the testosterone level of the test subjects after they had received children themselves.
The result: if the men had experienced a father in their youth who had taken care of them, they produced less testosterone on average as fathers than men who grew up without a committed father in their youth. According to the data, there was no effect on how much the father had contributed in infancy and childhood.
However, the researchers had no information about the hormone levels of the first generation fathers. Perhaps those men took more care of their children, who were naturally less testosterone? The explanation for the hormone level of the sons would be in the father's genes. In fact, there is an inherited component in testosterone production, the authors write.
So it's all a question of genetic material? Hardly, says Gettler: "It is unlikely that paternal testosterone only has an influence on education in adolescence and not in early and middle childhood." Rather, he suspects that social influences, especially during puberty, would change the hypothalamic-pituitary axis and thus the later testosterone production. "This shows how parenthood, and especially fatherhood, can have lasting effects across generations," says the anthropologist.
