Does early paternal involvement predict offspring developmental diagnoses? Dylan B. Jackson a, ⁎, Jamie Newsome a , Kevin M. Beaver b,c a The University of Texas at San Antonio, United States b Florida State University, United States c King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia abstract article info Article history: Received 17 May 2016 Received in revised form 27 June 2016 Accepted 1 July 2016 Available online xxxx Background: A long line of research has illustrated that fathers play an important role in the development of their children. Few studies, however, have examined the impact of paternal involvement at the earliest stages of life on developmental diagnoses in childhood. Aims: The present study extends this line of research by exploring the possibility that paternal involvement pre- natally, postnatally, and at the time of birth may influence offspring risk for various diagnoses in childhood. Study design: A quasi-experimental, propensity score matching design was used to create treatment and control groups to assess the relationship between paternal involvement at each stage of development and developmen- tal diagnoses. Subjects: Approximately 6000 children, and a subsample of fathers, who participated in the Early Childhood Lon- gitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). Outcome measures: Activity, attention and learning, speech or language, and other diagnoses in early childhood, and overall number of diagnoses at 4 years of age. Results: We find no consistent evidence that low paternal involvement prenatally or postnatally increases the risk of various developmental diagnoses by age 4. However, children whose fathers were absent at the time of their birth were at significantly greater risk of incurring various developmental diagnoses, as well as a significantly greater number of developmental diagnoses. Conclusions: The findings expand our understanding of exactly how early paternal influence begins and the spe- cific dimensions of early father behaviors that are related to the risk of various developmental diagnoses. Ulti- mately, these results have important implications concerning father involvement during the earliest stages of the life course. © 2016 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Keywords: Fathers Birth Prenatal Postnatal Involvement Development Childhood Diagnoses 1. Introduction Conventional wisdom suggests that fathers play an important role in the development of their children. For instance, fathers often provide fi- nancial, emotional, and practical support to their offspring, which would be expected to improve the child's developmental trajectory and life chances. Research on the relationship between father involve- ment and child wellbeing has indicated that fathers can have a profound and unique influence on various dimensions of offspring development, including cognitive [1,2] social [3,4] emotional [5], and behavioral [6,7] development. Ultimately, the general consensus in the literature is that fathers can have a long-lasting influence on the life trajectory of their offspring. Although the body of research examining the influence of paternal traits and behaviors on offspring development is extensive, the majority of studies focus on fathering at a single stage of the life course, typically from late infancy onward [2,3,6,7]. While some research has considered the role of father involvement during pregnancy on child outcomes [8], most of these studies explore whether paternal prenatal support pre- dicts maternal wellbeing during and after pregnancy [8,9], infant mor- tality and/or preterm birth [10,11], or subsequent paternal involvement with the child [12]. These studies tend to overlook the pos- sibility that, in addition to father involvement postnatally, paternal in- volvement prenatally and at the time of birth may predict developmental outcomes in children. The current study seeks to ad- dress this gap in the literature by examining whether father involve- ment prenatally, postnatally, and at the time of birth predicts the likelihood of receiving one (or more) of several developmental diagno- ses during early childhood. Early Human Development 103 (2016) 9–16 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: Dylan.Jackson@utsa.edu (D.B. Jackson). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2016.07.001 0378-3782/© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Early Human Development journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/earlhumdev