Recent research by international scientists, including a team from Stellenbosch University, has shown that it’s not only mothers whose drinking habits can affect their babies’ development but that simultaneous consumption by fathers can also play a role.
TimesLIVE reports that while it is known that foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) in children is caused by women who drink during pregnancy, the latest findings reveal that a father’s drinking can also negatively affect a child’s growth and development by the age of seven.
The study was published in the journal Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research.
Researchers analysed data from five studies on the prevalence and characteristics of FASD among grade 1 pupils in the Western Cape to explore whether a father’s drinking affected children diagnosed with FASD.
There is a growing recognition, they reported, that factors beyond pregnant women’s drinking habits can affect their children’s development, with closer attention now being paid to the role of fathers – as a contributing factor to women’s drinking habits and as an independent contributing factor to the children’s growth and development.
“Our findings show that children whose fathers drank alcohol were more likely to be shorter, have smaller heads and score lower on verbal IQ tests,” the team reported.
“It was also clear that the highest risk to their development exists when both parents use alcohol during pregnancy, and that ‘binge drinking’ by the father, but especially by both parents, has the most detrimental effect on the child’s development.
“Data analysis showed that between 66% and 77% of fathers of children on the FASD spectrum drank during their partner’s pregnancy with the child. These fathers drank an average of 12 drinks per drinking day. This was significantly correlated with smaller head circumference in their children. Head circumference is used as a measure of brain development.”
Fathers who drank five or more drinks per day had shorter children with smaller head circumferences, who performed worse on measures in verbal intelligence tests.
“In general, it was found that the more fathers drank, the worse their children performed. However, it should also be noted that all of these effects were observed in children whose mothers drank during pregnancy.
“When looking at both parents’ drinking patterns, the father’s alcohol use alone didn’t show a clear link to the child’s physical or brain development problems. While both parents’ drinking was considered, the main effects on a child’s development and physical features were linked to the mother’s alcohol use,” said the researchers.
“Even after accounting for alcohol use by mothers during pregnancy, the father’s drinking was still linked to lower child height, smaller head size and reduced verbal IQ, suggesting paternal alcohol use may have its own, though limited, impact on a child’s growth and development.
“Data analyses of children where both parents consumed alcohol during pregnancy had significantly negative effects on growth, head circumference, verbal intelligence and general birth defect scores than in children where neither parent consumed alcohol.”
Researchers concluded by saying while it was unclear whether the impact of a father’s drinking on a child’s growth and development stemmed from impaired sperm quality or other epigenetic influences (changes in how genes work that don’t involve altering the DNA code itself), the father’s role in the development of FASD could not be overlooked.
• International Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Day was on Tuesday (9 September).
Study details
Does paternal alcohol consumption affect the severity of traits of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders?
Philip May, Julie Hasken, Jason Blankenship et al.
Published in Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research on 12 August 2025
Abstract
Background
Animal models suggest that paternal alcohol consumption may influence offspring traits, yet few human studies exist.
Methods
Data from population-based studies of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) among first-grade students provided case–control data to explore traits of fathers of children with: FASD, alcohol exposure, and unexposed controls.
Results
Most males in this population drank, but more fathers of children with FASD drank during pregnancy ( = 73.2%) than fathers of controls ( = 63.4%). Among drinkers, fathers of children with FASD: (a) consumed more drinks per occasion than controls ( = 11.5 vs. 9.7 for maternally exposed controls and 8.1 for maternally unexposed controls), (b) drank more frequently and binged, and (c) were reported to have had a drinking problem ( = 27.8% vs. = 18.8%). Partial correlations, controlling for maternal average drinks per drinking day (DDD) by trimester and maternal tobacco use, indicated a significant, negative association between paternal heavy/binge drinking (≥5) and child outcomes resulting in a significant reduction in child height, head circumference, and verbal IQ. Categorical analysis of combined levels of maternal and paternal drinking indicated a significant mean reduction in child height, head circumference, and verbal IQ centile, and a significant increase in total dysmorphology score, did not occur without maternal drinking. Combined paternal and maternal drinking pattern analysis also indicated that paternal drinking was not independently associated with child total dysmorphology scores or neurocognitive outcomes. Models of maternal and paternal drinking were significant, but main and significant effects on total dysmorphology and neurocognitive outcomes were via maternal alcohol consumption. Likewise, paternal alcohol consumption was not independently associated with an FASD diagnosis when controlling for prenatal maternal alcohol and tobacco use.
Conclusions
Paternal alcohol consumption was associated with an independent, negative influence on child height, head circumference, and verbal IQ. Maternal drinking, when combined with heavy male drinking, was associated with more severe FASD outcomes.
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