The Importance of Father Love: History and Contemporary Evidence

Abstract

This article explores the cultural construction of fatherhood in America, as well as the consequences of this construction as a motivator for understudying fathers—especially father love—for nearly a century in developmental and family research. It then reviews evidence from 6 categories of empirical studies showing the powerful influence of fathers’ love on children's and young adults’ social, emotional, and cognitive development and functioning. Much of this evidence suggests that the influence of father love on offspring's development is as great as and occasionally greater than the influence of mother love. Some studies conclude that father love is the sole significant predictor of specific outcomes after controlling for the influence of mother love. Overall, father love appears to be as heavily implicated as mother love in offsprings’ psychological well-being and health, as well as in an array of psychological and behavioral problems.

Multiple Measures of Family and Social Support as Predictors of Psychological Well-Being: An Additive Approach

“…The results were unexpected because, fathers play a fundamental role in their young and adolescent children's development and provide great opportunities for them as well (Roggman, Boyce, Cook, Christiansen, & Jones, 2004;Zimmerman, Salem, & Notaro, 2001). Their support, love and influence in their children's development are unique and distinct from that of a mother, according to reviews of the child development literature (Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Bradley, Hofferth, & Lamb, 2000;Pleck & Masciadrelli, 2004;Rohner & Veneziano, 2001). Father's involvement and support has been shown to be important for a child's social, emotional and academic needs.…”

Introduction to Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory (IPARTheory) and Evidence

“…Many of these studies conclude that father/paternal love explains a unique and independent portion of the variance in specific child outcomes over and above the portion explained by maternal love (Ahmed et al, 2012;Carrasco & Rohner, 2013;Rohner & Carrasco, 2014;Veneziano, 2003). Other studies conclude that paternal love is sometimes the sole significant predictor of specific child outcomes (Rohner & Veneziano, 2001). Studies in this latter category tend to address one or more of the following issues: (1) personality and psychological adjustment problems (Barnett, Marshall, & Pleck, 1992;Bartle, Anderson, & Sabatelli, 1989;Dickie et al, 1997); (2) conduct and delinquency problems (Kroupa, 1988); and (3) substance abuse (Brook, Whiteman, & Gordon, 1981;Eldred, Brown, & Mahabir, 1974).…”

“…Substantial evidence in many of the foregoing classes of study suggests that father love (acceptance-rejection) is often as strongly implicated as mother love in the development of behavioral and psychological problems as well as in the development of offspring's sense of health and well-being (Rohner, 1998;Rohner & Veneziano, 2001;Veneziano, 2000Veneziano, , 2003. Studies supporting this conclusion tend to deal with the following issues among children, adolescents, and adults: (1) personality and psychological adjustment problems (Ahmed, Rohner, & Carrasco, 2012;Amato, 1994;Dominy, Johnson, & Koch, 2000;Khaleque & Rohner, 2011;Komarovsky, 1976;Stagner, 1938); (2) mental illness (Akun, 2016;Barrera Jr. & Garrison-Jones, 1992;Lefkowitz & Tesiny, 1984); (3) psychological health and well-being (Amato, 1994); (4) conduct disorder (Eron, Banta, Walder, & Laulicht, 1961;Putnick et al, 2014); (5) substance abuse (Brook & Brook, 1988;Emmelkamp & Heeres, 1988); (6) delinquency (Andry, 1962); (7) prosocial behavior (Putnick et al, 2014); (8) children's social competence (Putnick et al, 2014); and (9) school performance (Putnick et al, 2014).…”

Father Involvement, Early Intervention Program and Well-being of Children with Special Needs

“…Previous studies found that in the implementation of the early intervention program has the effect of moderator to progress the development of children with special needs under the age of 3 years (Shonkoff & HauserCram, 1987) and the father involvement as a moderator in the relationship mother-fatherchild (Rohner & Veneziano, 2001) in addition to Hebbeler et al (2007) whoes only mention other services affected by the family and child returns.…”

“…DOI: 10.20489/intjecse.330045 (Rohner & Veneziano, 2001;Shonkoff & Hauser-Cram, 1987) attributed the moderator rather than a mediator in the study of the early intervention program. These findings prove that the early intervention program is the primary contribution between father involvement and well-being of children with special needs.…”