A massive study now finds that God’s views might be true. Well, that is not exactly what they found. But, they do concede that “fathers are essential for well adjusted children.” Imagine that!
The 20-year review finds children have fewer psychological and behavioral problems because they were “fathered.” The study took place in Stockholm, Sweden, the bastion of liberalism, particularly liberal views on the family. Published in the February, 2008 issue of Acta Paediatrica, it notes that active father figures play a key role in reducing behavior problems in boys and psychological problems in young women.
The Swedish researchers also found that regular positive contact reduces criminal behavior among children in low-income families and enhances cognitive skills like intelligence, reasoning and language development. Children who lived with both a mother and father figure also had less behavioral problems than those who just lived with their mother.
As a result, social policies are seeing a slight shift. The researchers are urging healthcare professionals to increase fathers’ involvement in their children’s healthcare and calling on policy makers to ensure that fathers have the chance to play an active role in their upbringing.
God would be pleased!
The 20-year review looked at 24 papers covering 22,300 individual sets of data from 16 studies. The bottom line, “Children reap positive benefits if they have active and regular engagement with a father figure.” Seems like I read that in the Bible!
The children with a positive father figure “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.” Extending into adult life, the study suggested, “Women who had better relationships with partners and a greater sense of mental and physical well-being at the age of 33, had a good relationship with their father at 16.”
The study can short of endorsing fathers, it substituted the notion of a “father figure.” And it said that the secret to the father’s impact could be as simple as “talking and sharing” to playing an active role in “day-to-day care.” It appears to be rooted in the simple power of presence, a positive father who cares.
The study comes at a time when most family policy people in Western nations recognize that “unfortunately current institutional policies …do not support the increased involvement of fathers in child rearing.”
Adapted from LifeSiteNews.com
