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Father's Presence Improves the Behavior and Mental Skills of the
Chidren - Biological father or father figure?
By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor

George Michael knows it. Active father figures are crucial in
mitigating behavior issues in young men and psychological ones in
young women, as revealed by a Swedish meta-analysis published in the
journal "Acta Paediatrica.

" Regular positive contact decreases
criminal behavior in young people coming from low-income families,
boosting their cognitive skills such as intelligence, reasoning and
language ability.

The team analyzed the results of 24 studies published between 1987 and
2007, made on 22,300 subjects, aged 0 to 33, from the US, UK, Sweden
and Israel. 18 researches also assessed the familial social economic
status.

"Our detailed 20-year review shows that overall, children reap
positive benefits if they have active and regular engagement with a
father figure," said Dr. Anna Sarkadi from the Department of Women's
and Children's Health at Uppsala University, Sweden.

"For example, we found various studies that showed that children who
had positively involved father figures were less likely to smoke and
get into trouble with the police, achieved better levels of education
and developed good friendships with children of both sexes. Long-term
benefits included women who had better relationships with partners and
a greater sense of mental and physical well-being at the age of 33 if
they had a good relationship with their father at 16. The studies show
that (the type pf engagement of the father figure) can range from
talking and sharing activities to playing an active role in the
child's day-to-day care," said Sarkadi.

But these researches do not make the difference between the biological
father and other father figure.

"However, our review backs up the intuitive assumption that engaged
biological fathers or father figures are good for children, especially
when the children are socially or economically disadvantaged. Children
who lived with both a mother and father figure had less behavioral
problems than those who lived with just their mother. However, it is
not possible to tell whether this is because the father figure is more
involved or whether the mother is able to be a better parent if she
has more support at home," said Sarkadi.

"Public policy has the potential to facilitate or create barriers to
fathers spending time with their children during the crucial years of
early development. Unfortunately current institutional policies in
most countries do not support the increased involvement of fathers in
child rearing. Paid parental leave for fathers and employers
sympathetic to fathers staying at home with sick children is still a
dream in most countries. We hope that this review will add to the body
of evidence that shows that enlightened father-friendly policies can
make a major contribution to society in the long run, by producing
well-adjusted children and reducing major problems like crime and
antisocial behavior," she added.