Father Involvement Research

The research presented in the reference list informed me greatly on the father’s role in the early years of development. Through my research on this topic I came to realize that a father’s role plays a very important part in the child’s cognitive, emotional, and social development. There was a research summary conducted by the University of Guelph that studied the effects of father involvement. The research summary contains many different researches that have been studied in the three areas listed above. Concerning cognitive development, “Infants of highly involved fathers, as measured by amount of interaction, including higher levels of play and caregiving activities, are more cognitively competent at 6 months and score higher on the Bayley …show more content…
Equally important findings took place in a child’s emotional development. Findings showed that, “Father involvement is positively correlated with children’s overall life satisfaction and their experience of less depression” (Dubowitz et al., 2001; Field, Lang, Yando, & Bendell, 1995; Formoso, Gonzales, Barrera, & Dumka, 2007; Furstenberg & Harris, 1993; Zimmerman, Salem, & Maton, 1995). The father’s role also assist’s in a huge advantage to a child’s social development. Studies have shown that, “Father involvement is positively correlated with children’s overall social competence, social initiative, social maturity, and capacity for relatedness with others” (Amato, 1987; Forehand & Nousiainen, 1993; Gottfried et al., 1988; Krampe & Fairweather, 1993; Mischel et al., 1988; Parke, 1996; Snarey, 1993; Stolz, Barber, & Olsen, 2005). Moving on, in the media we are constantly being shown that the mother is the ultimate caregiver. The mother is the one who is more involved with the children, while the father holds a mush less involved approach. This might have to do with the fact that men have more difficulties showing their