Father's Involvement and Child Development

The role of mothers as caregivers and their positive influences on the health and survival of children has been widely studied in many countries. The role of paternal care in nutrition and health programs in Viet Nam has not received as much attention as it deserves, despite the many public policy recommendations that have been made concerning this issue. There is an urgent need to increase knowledge concerning the dimensions, predictors of male involvement, its relationships to women's care and to the nutritional and developmental status of children. The multidimensional nature of the issue was studied and analyzed from different perspectives by using a combination of different research methods and disciplines including epidemiology, sociology and psychology. This book adds to the literature information regarding the involvement of the father in supporting the mother and the child for the sake of child health and development. It also provides information that can be used by social, public and family health professionals to design further in- depth studies concerning the father's involvement and to develop suitable strategies to involve men and fathers in health.