The “Father Effect.”
Nobody Said Parenting Was Going To Be Easy.
Fatherhood is an emerging field of study. Until recently Motherhood has been the focus of scientific research. And, of course, that make sense. Of course we should know about the importance of Motherhood and all of the aspects of it. But, my gosh, how incredibly important is Fatherhood as well! Why, in the name of GOD, would science limit itself to just researching Motherhood?
Well, thankfully, that trend is changing. Research is now being done on the importance of Fatherhood (darn right!)
I know ALL of you dads out there would agree that we, Dads, play a hugely integral role in our children’s lives. This is either by our involvement with our children - or conversely - our absence from their lives.
One thing is becoming (scientifically) certain, we MUST be FULLY PRESENT in our children’s lives in order to give them the BEST POSSIBLE chance at a successful life!
And so it begins…
It all starts before that little Bundle Of Wonderfulness even arrives in the Delivery Room. Before little “Jimmy” or little “Nicole” gets the “Hotel Wake-up Call” to come out into the world - Fathers have a HUGE impact on the health of their - as yet - unborn child.
A study conducted at the University of Florida found that when Fathers are present while the child is still in the prenatal period, the levels of low birth weight, very low birth weight, preterm birth, very preterm birth, and small for gestational age (SGA) was greatly reduced. This is across ethnic and racial differences.
Let me break this down for you: YOU (Dad) just BEING THERE for your child’s mother, while your offspring is still in her tummy, makes a HUGE impact in the health of your child upon birth!
The single most important thing that you can do to help your child succeed in life is to be PRESENT in your child’s life. Be there! Listen! Play! Role Model! Love!
Another study conducted by the Infant Mental Health Journal, found that babies whose fathers were more engaged and active when playing with them in their initial months performed better in cognitive tests at two years of age. The researchers say that while a number of factors are critical in a child’s development, the relatively unexplored link between quality father-infant interactions at a young age may be an important one.
A study conducted by the journal of Leisure Science found; “Of particular interest was the finding that father in involvement in core family leisure was the strongest predictor of family adaptability, from the youth perspective. Satisfaction with core family leisure with the father involved was the single best predictor of all aspects of family functioning from both the father and youth perspective.”
So, to unpack both of these studies: (1) Be engaged with you infant children! It will help them to comprehend the world around them. (2) Being actively engaged and present with your family even in times of leisure, helps you family to “overall” be a highly functioning unit!
Here is one that makes EVERY DAD CRINGE. Our daughter’s sexual behavior. You may think that you have no control over what your teenage daughter does…but you are way wrong. It all starts with our interactions and being present with them. A study conducted by the American Psychological Association states: “these findings suggest that higher quality fathering may decrease daughters’ engagement in Risky Sexual Behavior (RSB) by increasing the amount of parental monitoring that they receive and decreasing their affiliation with peers who promote RSB.”
Here is a WHOPPER of a statistic: Children with 2 Supportive parents scored higher on the Bayley MDI than all other children (American Psychological Association)
[The Bayley Scales contain three subtests:
The Cognitive Scales, which measures a child's ability to, for example, engage in pretend play, attend to objects, or look for an object that has fallen;
The Language Scale, which measures a child's ability to understand and use spoken language to label objects or people, follow instructions, or recognize objects based on spoken description or labels;
The Motor Scale, which tests both gross and fine motor abilities.
The Social-Emotional Scale, which measures a child's ability to engage with others socially, self-calm and takes part in age-appropriate play.
The Adaptive Behavior Scale, which measures a child's level of development relative to everyday life skills such as following rules, cooperating, and generally adapting to new or demanding situations.]
If you want your children to prosper though childhood, into adolescence to adulthood….BE INVOLVED!
A study done at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found “Beneficial effects for children of father’s involvement in three domains: educational and economic attainment, delinquent behavior, and psychological well-being. The course of affective relations throughout adolescence also has a beneficial effect on delinquent behavior and psychological well-being.”
What is all of this saying?
I know it may sound like a broken record. But, science is now showing us how important it is to be in our kid’s lives.
Let’s break it down to one thing:
The single most important thing that you can do to help your child succeed in life is to be PRESENT in your child’s life. Be there! Listen! Play! Role Model! Love!