Fathers 'have key role with children' after families split
The Telegraph, London, U.K., By Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent, May 26, 2004
The importance of fathers in the emotional development of
children is emphasised today in a study of separated parents
in Bristol.
Researchers say they found a direct relationship between
children's behavioural problems and the amount of contact they
had with their natural father.
The effect was more pronounced in single-parent families,
particularly where the mother was a teenager. In such cases,
children were especially vulnerable emotionally if they had no
contact with their father.
The findings are published in the Journal of Child Psychology
and Psychiatry amid protests by fathers about access to
children after a family break-up.
Prof Judy Dunn, from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's
College London, studied 162 children whose parents had
separated. Of those children, 18 per cent had no contact with
their father and 16 per cent had contact less than once a
month.
The children were interviewed, initially at the age of eight
and a half, about their relationships with their mother,
fathers and stepfathers. Mothers were asked to report on
whether their children were aggressive and delinquent, or
withdrawn, anxious or depressed.
There were fewer problems relating to aggression with a child
and its mother and non-resident father if there was good
contact between the father and the child and their
relationship was good.
By Kathleen Parker, The Orlando Sentinel, USA, on July 18, 1999
Now is the time for all good fathers to come to the aid of the family.
But you'd better hurry; your days are numbered. In fact, if you happen to be a heterosexual male (further doomed by Caucasian pigmentation), your days are already over, according to a cover article in the June issue of American Psychologist, published by the American Psychological Association.
In their article, "Deconstructing the Essential Father," researchers Louise B. Silverstein and Carl F. Auerbach challenge one of the core institutions of our culture -- fatherhood. Read More .. less, fathers, as we've known and loved them, are obsolete.
The article makes numerous breathtaking assertions, but basically the researchers state that fathers aren't essential to the well-being of children
Read More ...
Children are heavily impacted by parental imprisonment and greater
attention should be given to their rights, needs and welfare in criminal
justice policy and practice. Due to a variety of reasons such as mothers
often being the primary or sole carer of children, complicated care
arrangements, the likelihood of women prisoners being greater distances
from home and a host of factors explored in detail in other QUNO
publications, maternal imprisonment can be more damaging for children
than paternal imprisonment. However, it is important not to
underestimate the damage that paternal imprisonment can have on
children.
Children with incarcerated fathers experience many of the same problems
as those with incarcerated mothers, including coping with loss,
environmental disruption, poverty, stigmatisation, health problems and
all of the difficulties involved in visiting a parent in prison. It
appears that there are also some difficulties specifically associated
with paternal imprisonment, such as a higher risk of juvenile
delinquency and strained relationships between the mother and child.
The numbers of children separated from their fathers due to imprisonment
is far higher than those separated from their mothers due to the vast
majority of prisoners being men (globally over 90 per cent of prisoners
are male. To ignore this group would, therefore, be to neglect the vast
majority of children affected by parental imprisonment.
Read More ..
It's widely recognized that boys benefit from having dads around as role models and teachers about manhood.
But does having a father at home make much difference for girls?
But even in affluent families, girls become sexually active and pregnant earlier if they don't live with fathers,
according to the largest and longest-term study on the problem. It was released in May.
Compared with daughters from two-parent homes, a girl is about five times
more likely to have had sex by age 16 if her dad left before she was 6 and twice as likely if she stops living with
her dad at 6 or older.
The study of 762 girls for 13 years took into account many factors that could lead to early sex, says Duke
University psychologist Kenneth Dodge, the study's co-author. Still, there was an independent link between teenage
sex and girls not living with their biological fathers.
Divorced fathers are Read More ..volved in their children's lives than
conventional wisdom would have it, a new study shows.
It shows surprisingly varied and flexible care patterns among
separated families, with "every other Saturday" contact giving way to
Read More ..ild-focused arrangements.
Australian Institute of Family Studies research fellow Bruce Smyth
has produced the first detailed snapshot of parent-child contact after
divorce anywhere in the world. Published today in the institute's
journal Family Matters, the analysis has implications for children's
emotional and financial wellbeing.
Other research indicates children of separated families do best when
they have multifaceted relationships, including sleepovers, sharing
meals and doing schoolwork, with both parents.
Researchers say they found a direct relationship between children's behavioural problems and the
amount of contact they had with their natural father.
The effect was more pronounced in single-parent families, particularly where the mother was a
teenager. In such cases, children were especially vulnerable emotionally if they had no contact with their father.
When 50 percent of marriages end in divorce and 43 percent of children are left with one parent, everyone is
affected: uncles, aunts, grandparents, and friends, but mostly, the children. The devastation from our divorce
practices is our most public secret scandal. Everyone whispers it, the whispers never acknowledged. It seems that
as long as a villain can be created, society is content.
After three decades of research universally pointing to more productive options, why does Custody-Access-Support
remain?
Research proves that fatherhood really matters
Tallahassee Democrat, KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE, By Roland C. Warren, April 20, 2002
The Bush administration is proposing spending $300 million in federal welfare dollars to promote healthy marriages - it is the most concrete example of the president's pledge to "help strengthen the institution of marriage and help parents rear their children in positive and healthy environments." The result has been a firestorm of pundit debate on 24-hour cable news channels and opinion pages across the country.
Clearly, the president has touched upon a national nerve. Why? Because he has struck deep into two core issues comprising what, as a society, we believe we are and how each of us views our place in this society.
First is the question of what living arrangements are best for raising kids. Second is the question of where private decisions end and public concerns begin is marriage, beyond stamping the marriage license, the business of government?
How we answer these questions will determine much of how we work to build American society over the coming decades. That is why the president's $300 million proposal deserves more serious debate than the rhetoric-laden volleys being lobbed back and forth by experts and advocates on television. What this question deserves is the hot light of cold, hard data.
At the National Fatherhood Initiative, we have done just that, as we released "Father Facts, 4th Edition," the most comprehensive collection and review of statistics and research on the extent and effects of father absence, and the presence of fathers, ever assembled.
