Study Shows that Dads Matter
Ronald P. Rohner from the University of Connecticut conducted a major study on the importance of the role of a father in children's lives.
The study showed that children need love from fathers as much as mothers.
In Rohner's analysis of the cultural perspective on the role of fathers, he stated, "In the U.S., Great Britain, and Europe, we have assumed for the past 300 years that all children need for normal healthy development is a loving relationship with their mother, and that dads are there as support for the mother and to support the family financially but are not required for the healthy development of the children. But that belief is fundamentally wrong. We have to start getting away from that idea and realize the dad's influence is as great, and sometimes greater, than the mother's."
[http://www.abstinence.net/library/parents-corner/study-shows-dads-matter/]
http://psr.sagepub.com/content/16/2/103.full.pdf+html
Personality and Social Psychology Review
16(2) 103–115
sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1088868311418986
'Trans-national Relations Between Perceived Parental Acceptance and Personality Dispositions of Children and Adults: A Meta-Analytic Review'
Abstract
Three questions drawn from parental acceptance–rejection theory were addressed:
(a) Are children’s perceptions of parental acceptance trans-nationally associated with specific personality dispositions?
(b) Are adults’ remembrances of parental acceptance in childhood trans-nationally associated with these personality dispositions? and (c) Do relations between parental acceptance and offspring’s personality dispositions vary by gender of parents?
All studies used the child and adult versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaires (PARQ) for Mothers and for Fathers, as well as the child and adult versions of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ).
Results showed that both maternal and paternal acceptance in childhood correlated significantly in all countries with all seven personality dispositions of adult offspring. Adults’ remembrance of paternal acceptance in childhood correlated significantly with all adult personality dispositions except dependence.