Expectant Fathers

Lesson 6: Is He Ever Going to Help With the Housework??

Why Dads Are An Important Formula for Babies

Numerous studies have shown conclusively that involved and caring fathers are important for the psychological well-being of their children, including happiness, life satisfaction, and the absence of psychological distress. Many interview studies of happy and successful adults have discovered that a central fact of their lives was having had such fathers as children. One study that looked at the life course of several hundred children, first interviewed in 1951, found that the off spring of warm and affectionate fathers were much more likely in 1986 -when they were in their forties - to be happily married and mentally healthy and to report good relationships with friends.

For young adults, having a continuing, close relationship with their fathers has been found to be a significant contributor to their sense of well being. The likelihood is that most families in which fathers are highly involved are also those in which mothers are especially caring and competent. Many studies of two-parent families have failed to separate the father’s independent effect on the well being of the children from that of the mother’s. Sociologist Paul Amato recently completed a study in which he carefully distinguished "closeness to father" from" closeness to mother" among older children and young adults. He found that closeness to fathers, as measured by such indicators as understanding, trust, respect, affection, and fairness, makes a unique contribution to the psychological well-being of both daughters and sons. Young adults who feel emotionally close to their fathers tend to be happier and more satisfied in life, regardless of their feelings toward their mothers.

Feeling emotionally close to one’s father also has been shown to be of great psychological value for children who go through a divorce. The duality of the relationship between children and their divorced fathers, for example, is a strong indicator of how well adolescents are able to adjust to divorce. It is important to note that the quality of the relationship between child and father seems to be more important than frequency of contact. The evidence is not entirely clear on this, but large national surveys consistently show a limited statistical association between nonresident fathers’ visits and children’s well-being.

Does it make a difference whether or not the father is biologically related to the child? According to the available evidence, the answer is a resounding yes.

One of the surprising findings of family-related research in recent years is that the presence of stepfathers may actually aggravate child rearing problems and thereby increase the level of negative child outcomes.

It is a fact that the increase of surrogate fathers in the lives of children is strongly related to rising rates of child abuse, especially the most serious forms of child abuse.

Similarly, stepfathers are implicated in juvenile delinquency. In one 1985 study, a nationally representative sample of over one thousand families with children aged six to eighteen were interviewed, and three quarters of the families were re-interviewed five to six years later. At both the initial and re-interview times it was found that children living with biological fathers exhibited the least delinquency, and children with stepfathers had the most disordered behavior. Keeping your relationship together and enjoyable is the best way of assuring your child a healthy opportunity for the future and a stable family in which to find happiness.

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