Father's role in the Indian family

Father involvement has a unique impact on children’s outcomes, including cognitive development, achievement, math and reading scores, as well as behavioral problems.The fact that this benefit is here should raise concern to those who do not have these resources.

—W. Jean Yeung, Sociologist, University of Pennsylvannia

There is a substantial body of research literature documenting the positive benefits fathers bring to their children's lives. A review of studies on father involvement and child well-being published since 1980 found that 82 percent showed “significant associations between positive father involvement and offspring well-being…”(Paul R. Amato and Fernando Rivera, “Paternal Involvement and Children’s Behavior Problems,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 61 (1999): 375-384.)

Children with an involved father in their early years show up for school with more of the qualities needed for learning. They are more patient, curious, and confident. They can remain seated, wait patiently for their teacher, and maintain interest in their work. (Henry B. Biller, Father and Families: Paternal Factors in Child Development (Westport, CT: Auburn House, 1993).)

Educational psychologist Paul Amato explains that this higher level of self-control in school children with involved fathers was also associated with many other healthy qualities, such as improved general life skills, self-esteem, and higher social skills. (Paul R. Amato, Children in Australian Families: The Growth of Competence (New York: Prentice Hall, 1987).)

Kyle Pruett, in Fatherneed, reports on another major scientific study that linked positive fatherhood involvement with:

■  Lowered levels of disruptive behavior, acting out, depression, and telling lies;

■  Obeying parents, being kind to others, and being responsible;

■  Fewer behavioral problems in young boys and

■  Girls being happier, more confident, and willing to try new things.

Psychologist Ellen Bing was one of the first scholars to explore how fatherhood impacts child well-being. In the early 1960s, she found that children who had fathers who read to them regularly were likelier to do much better in many important cognitive skill categories than children who did not read to them. Interestingly, a substantial increase in a daughter’s verbal skills was one of the strongest benefits. (Ellen Bing, “The Effect of Child-Rearing Practices on the Development of Differential Cognitive Abilities,” Child Development 34 (1963): 631-648.)

A study nearly ten years later, published in Developmental Psychology, found that both well-fathered preschool boys and girls had increased verbal skills compared with kids with absent or overbearing fathers. (Norma Radin, “Father-Child Interaction and the Intellectual Functioning of Four-Year-Old Boys,”Developmental Psychology 6 (1972): 353-361.)

Ross Parke’s research shows that father involvement in the early months of a child’s life contributes to increased intellectual, motor, and physical development. (Ross Parke, Fatherhood (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996).)

Henry Biller, a noted fatherhood researcher, finds time and again that father-involved children are more confident and successful in solving complex mathematical and logical puzzles. This may be because fathers tend to be more specialized and interested in analytical problems. Norma Radin found that high father involvement contributed to higher mathematical competencies in young daughters. (Henry B. Biller, “The Father and Personality Development: Paternal Deprivation and Sex-Role Development,” in Michael E. Lamb, ed., The Role of the Father in Child Development (New York: Wiley & Sons, 1981), p. 104; NormaRadin, cited in Pruett, 2000, p. 45.)

Michael Yogman conducted a study of the role fathering plays in overcoming the effects of prematurity in Latino, African-American, and other inner-city populations. When he followed up with these preemies at three years of age, Yogman found that kids with highly involved fathers had substantially higher cognitive skills than children without involved fathers. (Michael Yogman cognitive/behavioral Outcomes of Preterm Infants,” Journal of the   American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34 (1995): 58-66.)

Michael Lamb found that preschool children with involved fathers had higher cognitive competencies on standardized intellectual assessments. (Michael E. Lamb, “Introduction: The Emergent American Father,” in Michael E. Lamb, ed., The Father’s Role:  Perspectives (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum and Associates), pp. 3-25.)

Infants who have involved fathers in their lives for the first eighteen to twenty-four months are more secure and are more likely to explore the world around them with increased enthusiasm and curiosity than children who did not have close, involved fathers. The father’s active play and slower response to help the child through frustrating situations promote problem-solving competencies and independence in the child. (Pruett, 2000, p. 41-42.)

Research from the University of Pennsylvania found that children who feel a closeness and warmth with their father are twice as likely to enter college, 75 percent less likely to have a child in their teen years, 80 percent less likely to be incarcerated, and half as likely to show various signs of depression. (Frank Furstenberg and Kathleen Harris, “When and Why Fathers Matter: Impacts of Father Involvement on Children of Adolescent Mothers,” R. Lerman and T. Ooms, eds. in Young Unwed Fathers: Changing Roles and Emerging Policies(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993).)

A young male's likelihood of engaging in criminal activity doubles if he is raised without a father and triples if he lives in a neighborhood with a high concentration of fatherless families. (Anne Hill and June O’Neil, Underclass Behaviors in the United States: Measurements and Analysis or Determinants(New York: City University of New York, 1993).)

“The research is absolutely clear…the one human being most capable of curbing the antisocial aggression of a boy is his biological father.”(1  Forensic Psychologist Shawn Johnston, quoted in The Pittsburgh Tribune Review, March 29, 1998, from Wadeand Sylvester, 2002, p. 106.)

A long-term study started in the 1950s found that the strongest indicator for a child being empathetic later in adulthood was warm father involvement in the early years of the child’s life. (1  Robert R. Sears et al., Patterns of Childrearing (Evanston, IL: Row Peterson, 1957); Pruett, 2000, p. 48.)

In a 26-year-long study, researchers found that father involvement was the number one factor in developing empathy in children. Fathers spending regular time alone with their children translated into children who became compassionate adults. (Richard Koestner et al., “The Family Origins of Empathic Concern: A Twenty-Six Year Longitudinal Study,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58 (1990): 709-717.)

After reviewing the large body of research on father involvement and child development, Kyle Pruett concludes, “these findings take us beyond a shadow of a doubt” that fathers play an important and irreplaceable role in healthy child development. He adds, “The closer the connection between father and child, the better off they both are now and in the future.”