Research shows us that fathers make a difference in their children's lives. Positive engagement between father and child has been shown to improve the child's well-being whether the father lives full-time with the child or not.
This Father's Day, Child Trends, a leading research organization focused on improving children's lives, identifies these five ways fathers contribute to a child's development:
- Fathers make important contributions to their kids' development — and do so in ways that are different from mothers' contributions.
- Fathers today are increasingly involved in their children's lives, especially compared to earlier generations.
- Most fathers who do not live with children help provide for them financially.
- Even fathers who don't live with their children can be involved parents.
- More programs for parents have begun to recognize fathers' value.
Read a more thorough discussion of these five points from Child Trends and learn about the research behind them.
