Fathers-to-be bond during pregnancy

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Unmarried dads are less likely to drift away if they are involved with their partner during pregnancy, U.S. researchers suggest.

Natasha J. Cabrera, a human development professor at the University of Maryland, and Jay Fagan at Temple University analyzed data drawn from an ongoing project -- the Fragile Families Child Well Being Study -- which involved 1,686 couples, most of whom were not married.

The researchers found that fathers involved during pregnancy were significantly more likely to remain involved in raising their child at age 3.

"The unmarried father is much more likely either to maintain or move into a more committed relationship if he's involved before the birth, and that's the critical difference," Cabrera said in a statement.

"As you might expect, research has consistently shown that creating a stable home life predicts whether a father will be an active participant in raising the child, but what we've learned here is that the prenatal months are when that kind of family structure is most likely to coalesce."

The study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, found that marital status is not a critical predictor of a father's involvement.

"You don't need much imagination to see that a live-in dad is likely to be more involved in child care and family life," Cabrera said.