Fathers' Involvement in Infant Care and Infants' Development

May 30, 2026 updated by: Rabia ZORLULAR, Nigde Omer Halisdemir University

Fathers' Involvement in Infant Care and Infants' Sensory Processing

In the early stages of life, newborns are dependent on caregivers to meet their basic needs for survival, feeding, and care. Generally, mothers assume primary responsibility for meeting their infants' basic needs and providing care, while fathers take on a supporting role. Both mothers and fathers actively contribute to the baby's healthy emotional development. This study, planned with fathers of 4-6 month old infants, addresses the lack of quantitative evidence regarding the relationship between fathers' involvement in infant care and infants' sensory processing.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Research shows that fathers' active participation in infant care positively impacts children's psychological, cognitive, social, and behavioral development. Mothers must encourage shared care between fathers and infants from the very beginning by providing opportunities for fathers to actively participate. Previous studies evaluating fathers' active involvement and infant development have shown that fathers report feeling a strong bond with their infants from birth, and infants show higher levels of motor, language, and personal/social development. However, no studies have been found that examine the relationship between infant sensory processing skills and the father's active involvement in infant care. This study, planned with fathers of 4-6-month-old infants, addresses the lack of quantitative evidence regarding the relationship between fathers' involvement in infant care and infants' sensory processing. Therefore, this study aims to determine the relationship between fathers' involvement in infant care and infants' sensory processing.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

75

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The study will include healthy, full-term (37-40 weeks of gestation) infants aged 4 to 6 months.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Term infants (37-40 weeks),
  • Infants aged 4-6 months

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Preterm infants,
  • Infants with congenital infections or proven genetic changes,
  • Infants and mothers diagnosed with metabolic, neurological, and genetic diseases,
  • Children whose parents did not volunteer to study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Healthy infants
Healthy, full-term (37-40 weeks of gestation) infants aged 4-6 months old and their families will be invited to participate in the study.
Behavioral: The Infant Sensory Profile-2
The Infant Sensory Profile-2 is a parent-administered questionnaire that documents the sensory processing patterns of infants from birth to 6 months. In this study, the questionnaire will be completed by mothers. It consists of 25 items assessing different aspects of sensory processing and takes 5-10 minutes to complete. Each item is scored between one and five. The scoring is as follows: Almost Always = 5, Frequently = 4, Sometimes = 3, Rarely = 2, Almost Never = 1, with a parameter of "Not Applicable = 0".
Behavioral: Fathers' Involvement in Infant Care
The Fathers' Involvement in Infant Care Questionnaire, developed by Kuruçırak and Kulakaç, is a five-point Likert-type instrument designed to assess the level of fathers' involvement in infant care. Responses range from 1 (Never) to 5 (Always); higher scores indicate greater involvement in caregiving activities.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Fathers' Involvement in Infant Care Questionnaire
Time Frame: 4-6 months
The Fathers' Involvement in Infant Care Questionnaire, developed by Kuruçırak and Kulakaç, is a five-point Likert-type instrument designed to assess the level of fathers' involvement in infant care. Responses range from 1 (Never) to 5 (Always); higher scores indicate greater involvement in caregiving activities. The questionnaire consists of three subscales: (1) Physical Care (13 items), (2) Personal Development and Health (8 items), and (3) Dedicating Time to Play Activities (7 items). In our study, it will be completed by fathers.
4-6 months
Sensory processing
Time Frame: 4-6 months
The Infant Sensory Profile-2 is a parent-administered questionnaire that documents the sensory processing patterns of infants from birth to 6 months. In this study, the questionnaire will be completed by mothers. It consists of 25 items assessing different aspects of sensory processing and takes 5-10 minutes to complete. Each item is scored between one and five. The scoring is as follows: Almost Always = 5, Frequently = 4, Sometimes = 3, Rarely = 2, Almost Never = 1, with a parameter of "Not Applicable = 0". There are 6 options. The sum of individual scores gives the raw score. The total raw score is classified as: "typical sensory processing" (41-61) and "atypical sensory processing" (0-40 or 62-125).
4-6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Nigde Omer Halisdemir University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Rabia ZORLULAR, Nigde Omer Halisdemir University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 30, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

March 15, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

March 15, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 30, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 30, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

June 4, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 4, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 30, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Fathers' Involvement in Infant

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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