The recent Government parenting strategy, somewhat naively, tries to re-engage absent fathers with their children. Ideas include dads-only parents evenings at school, or asking dads to attend courses on the role of the father.
These suggestions are hardly realistic in most cases, and there are many children who are far safer without any interference from their father. One certainly does not want to provide some dangerous men with more excuses for interfering.
But it is true that children do far better if they have a kind and committed father in the family. A report by the Equal Opportunities Commission, published last month, found a significant increase in emotional and behavioural difficulties among those children whose dads had not taken time off work when they were born or who had not adapted their working hours to have more time with their kids. Of course, the effect is more likely to derive from the positive attitude of the fathers who were prepared to make an effort, rather than from the actual number of hours in the home.
There is a large body of evidence that makes it inarguable that children will have a more favourable life trajectory if they have a staunch father.
Upward social mobility is associated with having a father prepared to devote time and money to helping them. The greater the investment from the father, the greater the child's eventual success. Fathers who play with their children give them increased skills in emotional regulation and social capability. These children are more likely to be popular among their age group. Having a positive relationship with the father is associated with greater social and emotional competencies and with fewer behavioural and psychological difficulties, such as aggression and depression.
On the other hand, family break-up results in an increase in aggressive and noncompliant behaviour, especially in boys, and correlates with an early onset of sexual activity in adolescence and lower educational achievement in adulthood.
The effect of a father's influence, though, may not be as direct as it seems at first glance. We know that men prepared to invest in their family tend to marry women who are more competent, intelligent and better educated and thus are likely to be effective parents. Still, whatever the reason, children fare better in intact families, and so this needs to be encouraged when appropriate.
Robin Balbernie is a consultant child psychotherapist based in Gloucestershire
