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Born Against
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There is a lot of published research on sex differences in parenting styles, and the effects of absent parents on their kids' future lives.
To cut to the chase on this thread's topic: it seems that, as a generalization, fathers have unique positive effects on the development of children of either sex, over and above the contributions provided by the mother. And it is also true (though not as controversial) that mothers have unique and positive effects on the development of children of either sex, over and above contributions provided by the father. So both parents, generally speaking, offer something unique and uniquely valuable to their children that it is difficult (though not impossible of course) for the other parent to provide, and absence of a mother has predictably different effects from absence of a father.
And it is also true that in divorced families, noncustodial fathers tend to drop out of children's lives more often than noncustodial mothers, for various reasons, not always under the control of the father. But in such families, fathers who are aggressive about staying in a parenting role in their children's lives can do so, and when they do, they have a positive effect on the development of their kids over and above the mother's contributions.
In my opinion it is useful to emphasize these studies because the importance of fathers in the lives of their children is often overlooked, especially recently in this country.
I think the research supports a general social policy that, in the absence of unusual circumstances, the default physical custody arrangement should be 50/50.
Here are some pertinent peer-reviewed studies:
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Amato, P. R. and J. G. Gilbreth (1999). "Nonresident fathers and children's well-being: A meta-analysis." Journal of Marriage and the Family 61(3): 557-573.
We employed meta-analytic methods to pool information from 63 studies dealing with nonresident fathers and children 's well-being. Fathers' payment of child support was positively associated with measures of children's well-being. The frequency of contact with nonresident fathers was not related to child outcomes in general. Two additional dimensions of the father-child relationship-feelings of closeness and authoritative parenting-were positively associated with children's academic success and negatively associated with children's extemalizing and internalizing problems.
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Another relevant dimension may be the extent to which fathers practice authoritative parenting. Many fathers take their children to restaurants and movies, yet fail to engage in authoritative practices, such as helping with homework, talking about problems, or setting limits (Amato,1987; Furstenberg, Nord, Peterson, & Zill, 1983). Not sharing a residence with children makes it difficult for men to enact the parental role. But some highly motivated nonresident fathers find ways to act like authoritative parents rather than adult companions, and when they do, their children may benefit. Simons, Whitbeck, Beaman, and Conger (1994) examined the extent to which nonresident fathers engaged in authoritative behavior, such as providing emotional support to children, praising children's accomplishments, and disciplining children for misbehavior. Scores on this measure were positively and significantly associated with adolescents' postdivorce adjustment.
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Bauserman, R. (2002). "Child adjustment in joint-custody versus sole-custody arrangements: A meta-analytic review." Journal of Family Psychology 16(1): 91-102.
The author meta-analyzed studies comparing child adjustment in joint physical or joint legal Custody with sole-custody settings, including comparisons with paternal custody and intact families where possible. Children in joint physical or legal custody were better adjusted than children in sole-custody settings, but no different from those in intact families. More positive adjustment of joint-custody children held for separate comparisons of general adjustment, family relationships, self-esteem, emotional and behavioral adjustment, and divorce-specific adjustment. Joint-custody parents reported less current and past conflict than did sole-custody parents, but this did not explain the better adjustment of joint-custody children. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that joint custody can be advantageous for children in some cases, possibly by facilitating ongoing positive involvement with both parents.
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Harper, C. C. and S. S. McLanahan (2004). "Father absence and youth incarceration." Journal of Research on Adolescence 14(3): 369-397.
This study measured the likelihood of youth incarceration among adolescent males from father-absent households, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 34,031 person-years). At baseline, the adolescents ranged from 14 to 17 years, and the incarceration outcome measure spanned ages 15 to 30 years. This study tested whether risk factors concentrated in father-absent households explained the apparent effects of father absence. Results from longitudinal event-history analysis showed that although a sizable portion of the risk that appeared to be due to father absence could actually be attributed to other factors, such as teen motherhood, low parent education, racial inequalities, and poverty, adolescents in father-absent households still faced elevated incarceration risks. The adolescents who faced the highest incarceration risks, however, were those in stepparent families, including father-stepmother families. Coresidential grandparents may help attenuate this risk, although remarriage and residential instability increased it. Social policies to support children should broaden beyond an emphasis on marriage to address the risks faced by adolescents living in stepfamilies as well.
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Videon, T. M. (2005). "Parent-child relations and children's psychological well-being - Do dads matter'?" Journal of Family Issues 26(1): 55-78.
This study explores the unique influence of fathers on adolescents' psychological well-being. Analyses are based on a nationally representative sample (Add Health) of students in Grades 7 through 12 living in intact homes. Results of multivariate analyses reveal that the father-adolescent relationship has an independent impact on adolescents' psychological well-being beyond the mother-adolescent relationship. Comparatively, the magnitude of effect was similar for mothers and fathers on sons' and daughters' well-being. Examining the dynamic nature of parent-adolescent relations through time revealed that adolescents have more volatile relations with fathers than with mothers. Changes in adolescent's satisfaction with the father-adolescent relationship significantly influence fluctuations in son's and daughter's psychological well-being; this effect persists after controlling for changes in mother-adolescent relationships. These findings underscore fathers' unique direct contribution to their children's psychological well-being.
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Amato, P. R. (1994). "Father-Child Relations, Mother-Child Relations, and Offspring Psychological Well-Being in Early Adulthood." Journal of Marriage and the Family 56(4): 1031-1042.
The present study, based on a national sample of 471 young adults, finds that closeness of fathers makes a unique contribution to offspring happiness, life satisfaction, and psychological distress. Parental divorce weakens the salience of the father-child relationship for adult children's life satisfaction. Similarly, marriage, parenthood, and full-time employment diminish the salience of both the mother-child and the father-child relationship for offspring well-being. Closeness to stepfathers is also related to some dimensions of offspring well-being. Overall, these findings suggest that fathers are important figures in the lives of young adults.
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Teachman, J., R. Day, et al. (1998). "Sibling resemblance in behavioral and cognitive outcomes: The role of father presence." Journal of Marriage and the Family 60(4): 835-848.
Using longitudinal data on sibling pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, we investigate the influence of father presence on behavioral and cognitive outcomes for children. Our results indicate that children who live in one-parent families exhibit more behavioral problems and have lower mathematics and reading ability than children in two-parent families. The differences across time between children in two-parent and one-parent families are very stable for behavioral problems and mathematics ability. For reading ability, however the difference between children in two-parent and one-parent families increases over time.
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Flouri, E., A. Buchanan, et al. (2002). "Adolescents' perceptions of their fathers' involvement: Significance to school attitudes." Psychology in the Schools 39(5): 575-582.
Based on data from 2,722 British adolescents aged 14-18 years, this study explored whether perceived father involvement can be associated with school attitudes even after controlling for perceived mother involvement. Multiple regression analysis showed that both father involvement and mother involvement contributed significantly and independently to positive school attitudes. Furthermore, the association between father involvement and school attitudes was the same for sons and daughters. We did not find evidence to support the notion that being in a non-intact family weakens the association between perceived father involvement and school attitudes. Finally, there was no evidence suggesting that the impact of perceived father involvement on school attitudes depends on the level of perceived mother involvement. (C) 2002, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Flouri, E. and A. Buchanan (2002). "Life satisfaction in teenage boys: The moderating role of father involvement and bullying." Aggressive Behavior 28(2): 126-133.
It has been suggested that bullying at school and low social support are related to relatively poor mental health in schoolchildren. Based on data from 1344 adolescent boys aged 13-19 years in Britain, this study explored whether father involvement, as an underestimated-in the related research-source of social support, can protect against low levels of satisfaction with life. Multiple regression analysis showed that low father involvement and peer victimization contributed significantly and independently to low levels of life satisfaction in adolescent boys. There was also evidence relating to a buffering effect of father involvement in that father involvement protected children from extreme victimization. (C) 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
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McLanahan, S. S. and M. J. Carlson (2002). "Welfare reform, fertility, and father involvement." Future of Children 12(1): 147-165.
Recognizing that most poor families are single-parent families, the federal welfare reform law of 1996 emphasized the responsibility of both parents to support their children. In addition to strengthening the child support enforcement system, the law included several provisions designed to decrease childbearing outside of marriage and to promote two-parent families. This article focuses on the important role that fathers play in children's lives and how public policies have affected childbearing and father involvement. Key observations are: Compared with children living with both biological parents, children in father-absent families often have fewer economic and socioemotional resources from their parents, and do not fare as well on many outcome measures. Efforts to reduce the rising number of father-absent families by focusing on preventing unwanted pregnancy among unmarried women, especially teen girls, have met with some success; those programs seeking to alter adolescents' life opportunities in addition to providing education or family planning services appear to hold the most promise. Efforts to encourage greater father involvement by focusing almost exclusively on increasing absent parents' child support payments reap only minimal benefits for poor children because their absent parents often have few resources and little incentive to make support payments. To date, efforts to increase the emotional involvement of unmarried fathers with their children have produced disappointing results, but new research suggests that such programs can make a difference when targeting fathers at the time of a child's birth. Many children spend some time living away from their fathers, deprived of the financial and emotional resources they can provide. Because of the importance of fathers to child well-being, the authors conclude that new directions in research and public policies are needed to encourage greater father involvement across the wide diversity of family arrangements in society today.
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Flouri, E. and A. Buchanan (2004). "Early father's and mother's involvement and child's later educational outcomes." British Journal of Educational Psychology 74: 141-153.
Background. Few studies have investigated the individual long-term contributions that mothers and fathers make to their children's schooling. Aims. (1) To explore the role of early father involvement in children's later educational attainment independently of the role of early mother involvement and other confounds, (2) to investigate whether gender and family structure moderate the relationship between father's and mother's involvement and child's educational attainment, and (3) to explore whether the impact of father's involvement depends on the level of mother's involvement. Sample. The study used longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study. The initial sample were those 7,259 cohort members with valid data on mother involvement at age 7, father involvement at age 7, and school-leaving qualification by age 20. Of those, 3,303 were included in the final analysis. Method. The measures were control variables, structural factors (family structure, sibship size and residential mobility), child factors (emotional/behavioural problems, cognitive ability and academic motivation), and father's and mother's involvement. Results. Father involvement and mother involvement at age 7 independently predicted educational attainment by age 20. The association between parents' involvement and educational attainment was not stronger for sons than for daughters. Father involvement was not more important for educational attainment when mother involvement was low rather than high. Not growing up in intact two-parent family did not weaken the association between father's or mother's involvement and educational outcomes. Conclusion. Early father involvement can be another protective factor in counteracting risk conditions that might lead to later low attainment levels.
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