Father's Involvement Reduces Adolescent Problems

A strong and healthy father-child relationship can be closely associated with the lack of behavioral and emotional difficulties in adolescence, and a good academic motivation as well, according to a research done by the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford.

According to Ann Buchanan and Dr Eirini Flouri, co-authors of the research, girls whose male parents are closely involved in their upbringing are unlikely to develop any sort of mental health issues in their later lives. In the case of boys, they tend to be more disciplined and ordered and are less likely to get involved in law and order problems as they grow up.

The research authors defines an 'involved' father as a person who understands the child, reads his/her mind, take him/her for outings, concerned about the child's education, and willingly takes an equal role as the mother in managing the child. According to the research team, whether or not he is living with the child's mother or whether or not he is the biological father of the child is totally immaterial. Only the depth of the father-child relationship is what matters the most.

The study further observes that more the father's educational attainments, the better will be his involvement with his son or daughter. Other key findings include:

1) the father involvement at an age of 7 is strongly linked to the child's later academic achievements and

2) father involvement in the childhood shields the children against adult experience of homelessness in sons of manual laborers.

The research was conducted on around 17,000 children, born in 1958 and brought up in United Kingdom. The children were followed up periodically at the ages 7, 11, 16, 23 and 33, and their lifestyle and mannerism were noted down meticulously each time, before finally arriving at the conclusion.

To conclude, the study results clearly points to the fact that the quality time a father spends with his children has a very decisive effect in the shaping of his/her psychological and emotional side. The findings also draws attention to the role of education in shaping the character of fathers themselves, so that they become more children friendly and attentive to their behavioral and emotional needs when they require it the most, in the teen ages.

Jessica Moore