Dad's Matter: The Scientific Research On Fatherhood

What effects do fathers have on their children? According to research, much more than we often realize. According to Paul Raeburn, a science writer who spent time researching the implications of fatherhood, it appears that dads have a huge impact on their children, even before they are born.

Raeburn's research focused on the four key segments of a child's lifecycle: the fetus during during conception and pregnancy, the child in infancy, early childhood. And adolescence, and then divulged the ways in which a father's presence plays a role in their well being. 

His findings showed that the father's genes play a role in helping the fetus receive nutrients from its mother, and those same genes also increase a mother's blood pressure, which helps to send more blood to the growing fetus. This ensures that more blood sugar is passing through the placenta.

But a father's genes are not the only things that matter. After birth, research suggests that fathers are instrumental in helping infants expand their vocabulary, even more so than moms because given how close mothers are to young children and how much time they usually spend with them, they understand the words their child uses. Whereas, fathers usually spend less time with children so they are introducing newer words. This causes a child's vocabulary to grow more than when they are just around mothers.

During a child's adolescent years, research has shown that incredibly enough, a father's presence has a hormonal impact on daughters. Bruce J. Ellis from the University of Arizona first acknowledged the phenomena that girls with an absentee father (either a father absent emotionally and/or physically) in their lives hit puberty and got their periods quicker by about a year than those girls with a father in their lives. The big question of course is why this happens.

Another key contribution that fathers bring to the table is increased financial security. This has always been the stereotypical relational aspect that fathers brought to the table, and even though the tables are starting to turn with mother's bringing sometimes the majority of a family's financial contributions, fathers should not lose sight of bringing financial stability to their children. Children who live in poverty lose out on a lot of educational opportunities and experiences.

The most important thing for fathers is of course to love their children and spend time with them because they want to, and since 1965, the good news is that fathers are spending increasing more time with their children.