{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T19:11:39Z","timestamp":1784056299617,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"22","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,16]],"date-time":"2022-11-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1668556800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>There is an increasing interest in father\u2013child interactions and their effects. Due to the rising number of working mothers, marital interruptions, divorces, and child custody arrangements, paternal duties and the relevance of fathering continue to be re-evaluated. As there are rising expectations for men to undertake more childcare and household responsibilities, it was hypothesized that the presence of a disabled or chronically ill child would have a significant impact on the couple\u2019s future family situation, marital conduct due to paternal dissatisfaction, and increased stress levels. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine paternal intimacy problems, stress levels, and couple satisfaction inside families that have children with cystic fibrosis. The study followed a cross-sectional design with five questionnaires that were answered by a total of 107 fathers of children with cystic fibrosis from the \u201ccases\u201d group as the reference group, and 124 fathers of healthy children from the \u201ccontrol\u201d group. The statistically significant findings of the current study show that men who were taking care of their child with mucoviscidosis engaged less frequently in sexual activity. A significantly higher number of these respondents were smokers. A higher proportion of them reported marital distress (OR = 2.54) and inhibited sexual desire (OR = 2.02), all in association with a higher number of men taking psychiatric medication (7.5% vs. 1.6%). More than 40% of all respondents declared high levels of general stress and parenting distress, while the most frequently used coping mechanism for stress was avoidance-oriented (45.8% vs. 25.8%). Other important findings were the high levels of dissatisfaction and lower levels of marital quality on the SII scale, equivalent to the intimacy problems on the MIQ scale. It is likely that paternal stress is higher when parenting children with cystic fibrosis, and the lack of intervention in this vulnerable group seem to be associated with intimacy problems, couple dissatisfaction, and maladaptive coping mechanisms. It is recommended that these concerns should not only be raised for the mothers of children with mucoviscidosis, but also for the child\u2019s father or the male caretaker partner since they might experience the same problems as the opposite gender.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph192215055","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,16]],"date-time":"2022-11-16T02:27:34Z","timestamp":1668565654000},"page":"15055","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Paternal Intimacy Problems, Stress Levels, and Satisfaction from Families with Children Born with Mucoviscidosis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Zoran Laurentiu","family":"Popa","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, \u201cVictor Babes\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania"},{"name":"Centre for Translational Research and Systems Medicine, \u201cVictor Babes\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2375-2793","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Madalin-Marius","family":"Margan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microscopic Morphology, \u201cVictor Babes\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1084-2714","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elena","family":"Bernad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, \u201cVictor Babes\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lavinia","family":"Stelea","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, \u201cVictor Babes\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marius","family":"Craina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, \u201cVictor Babes\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2879-8080","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ioana Mihaela","family":"Ciuca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, \u201cVictor Babes\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anca Mihaela","family":"Bina","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Translational Research and Systems Medicine, \u201cVictor Babes\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania"},{"name":"Department III Functional Sciences, Discipline of Pathophysiology, \u201cVictor Babes\u201d University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"567","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pcl.2016.04.001","article-title":"Background and Epidemiology","volume":"63","author":"Sanders","year":"2016","journal-title":"Pediatr. 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