Kids with active fathers have less behavioral, psychological problems

Kids need their fathers too, not just mothers: Study

21 February, 2008

What has been widely believed for centuries has now been endorsed by research conducted by Swedish scientists: Active father figures have a key role to play in reducing behavior problems in boys and psychological problems in young women.

To be more specific, with an active father figure around, behavioural problems in boys, and psychological problems in girls, are less frequent. Also, intelligence, reasoning and language skills are more advanced in children who had good contact with both parents.

A review of 24 studies from four countries revealed that children who lived with a mother and father had fewer behavioural problems than those with only a mother.

Researchers found that a good relationship between children and their fathers had a positive effect that could last for two decades. As for low-income homes, regular contact between fathers and children was also seen to lead to less juvenile crime.

The review, published in the journal Acta Paediatrica, scrutinised 24 studies conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Israel published from 1987 and 2007 and covering 22,300 individual sets of data. The smallest study focused on 17 infants and the largest covered 8,441 individuals ranging from premature babies to adults aged 33 years.

Dr Anna Sarkadi, of Uppsala University, Sweden, where the research was carried out, wrote in the study: “Our detailed, 20-year review shows that, overall, children reap positive benefits if they have active and regular engagement with a father figure. Long-term benefits included women who had better relationships with partners and a greater sense of mental and physical well-being at the age of 33 if they had a good relationship with their father at 16.”

She continued: “We found various studies which showed that children who had positively involved father figures were less likely to smoke and get into trouble with the police, achieved better levels of education and developed good friendships with children of both sexes. Long-term benefits included women who had better relationships with partners and a greater sense of mental and physical well-being at the age of 33 if they had a good relationship with their father at 16.”

The researchers, however, said it was not clear whether living with a biological father confers an advantage over living with a father figure alone. “Our review backs up the intuitive assumption that engaged biological fathers or father figures are good for children, especially when the children are socially or economically disadvantaged,” wrote Dr Anna Sarkadi.

"Fathers and mothers, she added, “complement each other and together provide a rich care within the family which can't be replicated in any other setting.”

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