Why is a father figure important to every child’s development? The father’s support for the mother has been linked to positive child development outcomes. Throughout a child’s life, parenting or child-rearing helps him or her grow physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually.
As a parent, you’re not only responsible for parenting your kid, but you’re also responsible for their upbringing. It is most common for the child’s biological parents to serve as the primary caregivers in a family.
There are several options for a surrogate, including an older sibling, a step-parent, a grandparent, a legal guardian and aunts and uncles. When it comes to child upbringing, both governments and society may have something to say about it.
The acts and interactions you have with your kids add up to good parenting. It is motivated with a certain end result in mind. Character characteristics like self-determination, honesty, self-control, compassion, and collaboration are the goals of good parenting.
Why is a father figure important to every child’s development? Study answers
Most studies on parenting focus on the mother’s part. However, how crucial is a father’s engagement in the development of his children?
The researchers found it difficult to get rural Kenyan dads to step up their involvement. This is despite the fact that a study published in the journal Social Science and Medicine found a link between father engagement and better child development.
Childhood is a critical time in a person’s life. Their parents and home environment may have a significant role in their development. Even though there are dads in a lot of families, most parenting research and help has been focused on moms.
Parental caregiving is becoming more unequal, especially in lower and middle-income nations. Father’s participation has progressively expanded in high-income nations over the last several decades. This may have a positive impact on children’s development.
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Father engagement in low-income nations
Father engagement in low-income nations is a major focus of this research. Study author Italo Lopez Garcia and colleagues analyzed data from 1,070 mothers and 635 fathers across 60 rural Kenyan communities in 2018 and 2019. Because so many fathers moved, they could be questioned over the phone or at a time that was convenient for them.
Men and women both answered questions concerning the father’s involvement with their children and the home. Maternal well-being, including sadness and stress, was measured by mothers.
Observation and self-reported were used to evaluate maternal behaviors. In addition, researchers looked at how the children were doing in terms of their overall development. Finally, statistics on the population were gathered.
According to the findings, father engagement was not substantially impacted by the parenting intervention. About half of the men attended at least one session. Those who did participated in the “father’s alone” group rather than those that included their spouses and kids.
A greater level of parental participation and support for the child’s mother was seen among fathers who attended sessions. However, this did not have an effect on joint decision-making. Improvements in child development and improvements in the mother’s mental health have been linked to the father’s support of the mother.
When a father is supportive of his wife, it has a favorable influence on the mother, who is more likely to be involved in the care of her children. A tiny but substantial improvement in children’s development is linked to stronger father-child interpersonal support supplied to the mother and increased engagement in shared household decision-making, according to the study.
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Limitations of the study
Although this research made significant progress in better understanding the impacts of father engagement on children in low-income settings, it also had limitations. As a result, causality and reverse causation cannot be ruled out owing to the nature of correlational data.
Also, because there were so few dads in the sample, it is impossible to say whether or not that group was accurately represented. According to the study’s findings, fathers matter for the well-being of families and children in low and middle-income settings.
Interventions aimed solely at mother-child dyads may not be able to produce the same improvements in parenting behaviors and child development as those targeted at fathers.
Future research in early childhood development programs could benefit greatly from evaluating such treatments in similar low-resource contexts.
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Why is a father figure important to every child’s development? Study answers