Mankind Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Fall 2004)
pp. 47-86

The Foundation of the Father-to-Child Relationship.
Wade C. Mackey and Ronald S. Immerman

The literature reveals an overriding assumption that the father role is exclusively a social construct, and the biological basis for the father to child bond has been little investigated. The authors suggest that there is an independent adult-male to child bond that is separate from the man-woman and the woman-child bond. A quantitative survey of 55,000+ adult-child dyads from 23 cultures supports the possibility of an innate father-to-child bond. Models of parenting which exclude an inherent father to child bond may be suboptimal.