Intrinsic resting-state connectivity and personal meaning across the transition to fatherhood

New fatherhood is marked by profound psychological and neural transformations. While these changes can be stressful, many fathers also report increased life satisfaction associated with parenthood. Personal meaning-the subjective sense that life has purpose, meaning, and coherence-may reflect positive adaptation to parenthood. This study investigated how personal meaning across the transition to fatherhood is associated with both psychological and neural changes. Among 88 first-time fathers followed from mid-pregnancy into the first year after birth, we found an approximately even split between fathers who reported increases or decreases in personal meaning. Within 35 fathers who also underwent neuroimaging before and after birth, we observed increases in resting-state functional connectivity in the bilateral temporal lobes, right angular gyrus, thalamus, and right lateral occipital cortex, and decreases in regions such as the right frontal pole, left opercular cortex, and anterior cingulate. Increases in insular cortex connectivity predicted greater postnatal personal meaning, even after controlling for both positive and negative parenting-related feelings. These findings suggest that dynamic changes within the insula may support fathers' ability to form a higher order sense of meaning and purpose during this transformative period. Future mixed-methods research may further elucidate how these neural changes contribute to well-being during stressful life transitions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).