34. Beard 2011. The importance of fathers to children

CLICK HERE FOR RESEARCH: The importance of fathers in the lives of their children (2011)

Christopher Beard Bio:

Chris has been working in the field of parental involvement and responsible fatherhood for over 15 years. He is a recognized parent educator who has trained thousands of parents and professionals on why parental involvement, both mom and dad, is vitally important to the healthy development of children of all ages. As a former Program Manager and Director with the Urban League and National Fatherhood Initiative, Chris oversaw various state and federal projects designed to help organizations improve their parental involvement and promote family-friendly policies. He has traveled to over 35 states to work directly with local nonprofits and state agencies to help improve each organization’s capacity to promote effective parental involvement. A seasoned technical writer, Chris also co-authored NFI’s successful fatherhood reentry curriculum called “Inside Out Dad,” which is currently being used in over 300 juvenile and adult correctional facilities across the country in all 50 states.

Beard outlines the benefits of positively engaged fathers to their children: 

"Time, research, and empirical data from grassroots programs have brought clarity to the debate about the importance of fathers in the lives of children. The consensus is that when fathers are positively involved with their children and attentive to their physical and emotional needs, children’s well being increases. Studies now show that children with involved fathers display: better cognitive outcomes, even as infants; higher self-esteem and less depression as teenagers; higher grades, test scores, and overall academic achievement; lower levels of drug and alcohol use, and higher levels of empathy and other pro-social behavior (Horn & Sylvester, 2005). family situations where the dad is simply not in the picture. "

He accepts that, despite the above, fathers are pushed out of their children's lives:

"Public policy discussions have especially been one-sided, choosing to focus attention on codifying paternity and child support issues in state and federal law, largely ignoring the benefits of promoting fathers as caregivers. Consequently, the challenge for those children is to shift the focus of the conversation, not away from the mother’s equally important parenting role, or even away from the father’s financial responsibility to his children, but more toward how shared, involved, committed, and responsible parenting by the father can increase the happiness and wellbeing of the child, and imparts with this advice:

"The challenge moving forward is to continue to support the strengthening of America’s families and build the capacity of those in state organizations committed to empowering fathers to and become full partners in their children’s lives."

32. Fabricius et al, 2011 Parenting time, conflict and effects on children's health

CLICK HERE FOR RESEARCH: William V. Fabricius, Priscila Diaz, Sanford L. Braver, of Arizona State University, produce this latest study dispelling some of the commonly held misconceptions about contact to fathers post divorce:

Paper no 31 destroys some commonly held court myths, i.e: 

Is the quantity or the quality of parenting time more important for children’s outcomes?, 

“Should parenting time be limited in high-conflict families?” 

Responses from the Experts:

“We argue in the present chapter that these long-standing conclusions should be re-examined in the light of new evidence. We present new data on the correlation between quantity of parenting time and quality of parent-child relationships in families with and without severe parent conflict, and we discuss new findings in the health literature on family relationships and children’s long-term, stress-related physical health. We conclude that these new findings indicate that the lingering situation of minimal parenting time with fathers for great numbers of children is a serious public health issue.” 

“Is quantity of time or quality of time more important for child outcomes?” or “Is parenting time or the parent-child relationship more important?” are straw man comparisons that need to be retired from the debate. 

“…….evidence suggests that father-child relationships can be strengthened through increased parenting time in high conflict families as well as in low conflict families and that strengthened parent-child relationships can shield children from some of the effects of parent conflict transitions…”

On the effect of parenting time on the quality of parent – child relationships, the experts say:

“Our model indicates that the quantity of parenting time should impact the quantity of father-child interaction, which in turn should impact the quality (i.e., security) of father-child relationship; parenting time should not impact the quality of father-child interaction (i.e., the fathers’ responsiveness). The vertical line divides the PT scale at 13 – 15 days per “month” (i.e., 28 days). This represents 50% PT with each parent. The father-child relationship improved with each increment of PT from 0% time with father to 50% (r = .51, N = 871, p < .001). From 50% to 100% PT with father the father-child relationship did not show statistically significant change (r = .15, N = 152); At 50% PT it appears that each relationship achieves its highest level of emotional security."

(Which, roughly translated, means the father - child relationship peaks at 50%. The same goes for the mother’s relationship with the child. In other words, any parent who hogs the children for more than 50% is not doing it for any benefit to their own child relationship. Substantially less contact than 50% contact (sadly, the norm awarded in family courts) disaffects the parent child relationship, with the following results:

• serious long-term health risks to children 
• poor levels of emotional security 
• chronic activation of the stress response system, which can damage organs and systems 
• accumulating risk for mental health disorders, major chronic diseases, and early mortality” (Psychological Bulletin) 
• (causing) children (to be) doubly vulnerable to long-term damage to their physical health. 

A straightforward warning from the Experts:

“When we consider that almost 40% of the college students from divorced families that we recently surveyed had had minimal parenting time with their fathers, and ……. see the destroyed relationships those who had minimal parenting time now have as young adults with their fathers, and when we link that with the lifetime health outcomes of young adults who had reported similarly distant relationships with their parents, we should be alarmed at the extent of the personal suffering -- and at the scope of the public health problem – that they represent."