Dads rock: The evidence - American Institute for Boys and Men
ResearchFatherhood & Family, Mental Health, Black Boys & Men
Dads rock: The evidence<br>Jun 13, 2024<br>Ben Smith, Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, Jay Fagan
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Summary
The evidence is clear: Dads matter; they are doing more fathering than ever; they bring something extra to parenting; and they want to do more.
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1. Dads matter
Fathers have a direct, positive impact on the social, emotional, and cognitive development of their children, and this shows up in measures of educational achievement, social skills, and long-term mental health.¹⁻⁴ While fathers do more paid work, and perform less childcare overall than mothers, they play a unique and complementary role in child raising.
While they play an essential role at all stages of a child’s life from infancy to adulthood, their presence seems especially influential as they grow older. A father’s closeness to his child in middle childhood and adolescence protects against loneliness and depressive symptoms, particularly in girls.⁵ Sixteen-year-old girls who are close to their fathers have better mental health at 33.⁶ Controlling for many other factors, the adolescent delinquency rate for boys is lower when they have involved fathers.⁷ As Anna Machin, a scholar of fatherhood, writes:
[M]any dads in the West really step into their role during late childhood and adolescence, particularly when the time comes to teach their children. It’s that all-important role in preparing children to step into the big wide world.⁸
2. Dads are doing more
Since the 1960s, the time fathers spend with their children has increased by over 250%. As mothers have entered the labor force in greater numbers, fathers have reduced the average amount of time they spend in paid work, and increased the time they spend completing household activities and caring for their children.
DATA NOTE
Time use data from 1965-2000 comes from Bianchi, Suzanne M., John P. Robinson, and Melissa A. Milke. The Changing Rhythms of American Family Life. Russell Sage Foundation, 2006. Specifically, Tables 5A.1 and 5A.2.
Time use from 2003 through 2022 is based on an analysis using the American Time Use Survey.
How categories were constructed using American Time Use Survey data:
The “Paid work” category is based on "Working and work related activities (includes travel)" ACTCODE 600013 and includes working, work-related activities, other income-generating activities, job search and interviewing, and travel related to work.
The “Child care” category is based on “Caring for and helping household children” ACTCODE 600008 and includes activities such as providing physical care, reading, talking, playing, helping household children with homework, and more.
The “Housework” category is based on the “Household Activities” ACTCODE 600003 and includes activities such as housework; food preparation and cleanup; lawn and garden care; household management; interior and exterior maintenance, repair, and decoration; pet care, vehicle and tool care, and travel related to household activities.
See “APPENDIX H: Bridge between published activity categories and ATUS coding lexicon activity categories” in American Time Use Survey User’s Guide: Understanding ATUS 2003 to 2022. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023.
3. Dads parent a bit differently, and that’s good
While fathers are often considered “secondary caregivers” for their children, “helping” mothers or even “babysitting” their own children, this hugely downplays their role and the significant impacts they can have. Moreover, they play a unique role: sociologist David Eggebeen shows that 42% of parental inputs were “additive” (i.e., that even when the activities of each parent were similar, they nevertheless provide a cumulative benefit), 12% were redundant, and 22% were unique—that is, they came only from the father or mother.⁹
There are some things that fathers are especially good at providing their children. As William Jeynes, author of a meta-analysis on the role of fathers, writes, while mothers tend to be “more nurturing in their relationships with children, fathers tend to be more involved in preparing children to deal with life.”¹⁰ And they tend to do this through play, teaching, challenging, and modeling behavior.
Play: Dads spend a larger percentage of their time with children engaged in play, as shown in Figure 2. While the idea of Dads as the “play parent” is often used as a negative criticism, it is better to see it as a positive contribution. Play is critical to children’s development, helping them learn to manage their emotions, develop social skills, and regulate their behavior.¹¹ The play dads engage in is different from the type mothers engage in, typically involving more rough-and-tumble physical activities, which particularly supports behavioral and motor...