The new study conducted by researchers from the University of Oxford shows that fathers who are emotionally involved with their children and feel confident as a parent and partner are less likely to raise offspring with behavioural problems.
Data Used During The Study Was From A Large-Scale UK Research Involving Thousands Of Children
Maggie Redshaw, a developmental and health psychologist at the University of Oxford and co-author of the research, said that their recent study explored the influence of fathers on the behavior of their kids by analysing data from the former county of Avon, England called the Avon longitudinal study of parents and children. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), or Children of the 90s, was a study involving 15,247 pregnant women with estimated dates of delivery between April 1991 and December 1992. Since then the fathers, siblings and children of the participants have also begun to be studied.
The new study asked parents to answer questionnaires at various points in their child's life. Some of the questions probed a variety of issues including the child's attitudes towards other children, their tendency to restlessness, whether they were willing to share toys and their confidence in unfamiliar situations.
Practical Care That Dads Carry Out Influence A Child's Manners
Researchers found out that dads who adjust emotionally well to parenthood early reap the rewards when their children become teens.
"How new fathers see themselves as parents, how they value their role as a parent and how they adjust to this new role, rather than the amount of direct involvement in child care in this period, appears to be associated with positive behavioural outcomes in children. Involved fathers may influence children indirectly by being a source of instrumental and emotional support to mothers who provide more of the direct care for children. Greater paternal involvement may also lead to or be a manifestation of a happy and cohesive family, and this may bring about better outcomes in children," researchers said.
