Three Reasons to Celebrate Fathers
There is surprisingly little research on fathers but the research that we do have is fascinating!
Today is a special edition newsletter in honor of Father’s Day this Sunday (at least in some countries). I wanted to write this newsletter since fathers are often neglected in parenting research, as well as in the parenting world more generally. Despite fathers becoming increasingly involved in child care, many parenting research studies do not include fathers and those that do often fail to analyze mothers and fathers separately so our knowledge about the unique role of fathers is very limited. One review study which included over 726 articles on child psychology found that 50.7% of these studies involved only mothers as research participants, while only 1.5% involved only fathers. In addition, 30.5% of studies involved both mothers and fathers but did not analyze them separately, while only 17.4% of studies involved both mothers and fathers and analyzed these groups separately (allowing us to understand how fathers might be different than mothers).
Source: Phares et al., 2005
IMPORTANT NOTE: Before diving into the research, I want to mention that, if your child (or you) lack an involved father, remember that other additional loving adults in your child’s life (grandparents, child care providers, family friends, etc.) likely have similar benefits, and regardless of additional support people, what is most predictive of a child flourishing in the face of adversity is having at least one stable and loving adult in their life.
#1: The rough-and-tumble play that fathers tend to do with their children is actually good for them!
Fathers commonly engage in a more active and physical form of play, which is sometimes referred to as “rough-and-tumble play”. This type of play can include tickling, “wrestling”, chasing, or swinging and throwing a child. Research finds that high-quality rough-and-tumble play between fathers and children is associated with improved social and emotional skills and enhanced self-regulation abilities.
So what is considered “high-quality rough-and-tumble play”? Research suggests that it may involve positive emotions for both the father and child, the father being sensitive to the child, and maintaining a playful nature. High-quality rough-and-tumble play also does not involve one person dominating over the other in terms of physical strength or “winning” most of the time.
But what about children getting hurt? Research finds that children who engaged in more rough-and-tumble play play with their dads were actually less likely to get hurt. This may be because rough-and-tumble play teaches children about their physical limits and models how to take risks safely.
It is important to add that mothers can also engage in rough-and-tumble play (I know I do!) and that it likely has similar benefits, yet there is little research on rough-and-tumble play involving mothers.
#2: When fathers are more involved in caring for their babies, the babies show fewer nighttime awakenings.
If this isn’t motivation for a father to get more involved early on, then I don’t know what is!
A research study published in 2011 found that a higher involvement of fathers in the overall care of their infant in the first six months of life was linked to fewer nighttime awakenings (as measured by an objective measure of sleep called actigraphy). This association persisted even after controlling for breastfeeding.
#3: Paternity leave (fathers taking time off from work to care for children) is associated with many benefits for children and family functioning.
Research finds that fathers who take paternity leave (and in particular two or more weeks of leave) are more likely to have better relationships with their children. Specifically, fathers in this study who took leave showed better communication with their children, were closer to their children, and their children saw them as a more involved parent. The positive impacts on the father-child relationship even lasted for NINE YEARS after the father’s paternity leave.
Research also finds that, when married fathers took paternity, they were less likely to get divorced for up to SIX YEARS after their leave. This finding applied to both shorter paternity leave (one week or less) and longer paternity leave (a month).
Paternity leave is also associated with increased engagement in child care during infancy and beyond, improved relationship quality between co-parents, and sharing child care and household tasks more equally both before and after leave.
Unfortunately, paternity leave is often a privilege for fathers, particularly in the United States. However, I think this research points to the importance of fathers being involved in early child care and creating a foundation in the first few weeks of a child’s life. It also suggests that even a very short paternity leave may have a positive impact
One final note
There is very little research on same-sex couples, single mothers, fathers as the primary caregiver, non-binary parents or any families with atypical arrangements (such as grandparents caring for the child), so unfortunately it is not hard to know whether these findings apply only to fathers in typical arrangements (married to the child’s mother and a secondary caregiver) or to any additional person involved in a child’s life. It makes sense that any additional loving and involved adults in a child’s life would only be beneficial yet we do not have any research allowing us to make this conclusion. It is definitely time for research to be more representative of the families that exist in the real world!
Happy Father’s Day to all who are celebrating this weekend!!! If you know of any fathers who are not currently subscribed to this newsletter, share today’s newsletter with them to let them know how much you appreciate them or give them the gift of a subscription to this newsletter for Father’s Day (they don’t have to know that it’s free!).
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Welcome to the Parenting Translator newsletter! I am Dr. Cara Goodwin, a licensed psychologist with a PhD in child psychology and mother to three children (currently an almost-2-year-old, 4-year-old, and 6-year-old). I specialize in taking all of the research that is out there related to parenting and child development and turning it into information that is accurate, relevant, and useful for parents! I recently turned these efforts into a non-profit organization since I believe that all parents deserve access to unbiased and free information. This means that I am only here to help YOU as a parent so please send along any feedback, topic suggestions, or questions that you have! You can also find me on Instagram @parentingtranslator, on TikTok @parentingtranslator, and my website (www.parentingtranslator.com).