Involved Dads Give Kids an Edge (Canada)

September 15, 2011 — New data from a long-running study of Canadian families suggest that fathers play a key role in their children's intellect and behavior.

Compared with children with absentee fathers, children whose fathers were present and actively involved in their lives during early and middle childhood had fewer behavior problems and higher intellectual abilities as they grew older, even among children of lower socioeconomic status.

"Regardless of whether fathers lived with their children, their ability to set appropriate limits and structure their children's behaviour positively influenced problem-solving and decreased emotional problems, such as sadness, social withdrawal and anxiety," first author Erin Pougnet, a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, noted in a statement.

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Too many mums exclude dad from bringing up kids (UK)

I’ve always been keen on dads, even when there were no stats around to prove just how crucial they are to the healthy all-round development of a child. And this is particularly true with boys.

I have even gone as far as criticising absent or negligent dads for ignoring the needs of their children.

But now it would seem that it’s not errant dads who are the critical factor, it’s mums who don’t want dads around.

There is a new generation of women who choose to be a single mum and exclude dad from bringing up their child.

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Fatherless boys become dads earlier: study (UK)

AAP

Young boys whose dads don't live at home are more likely to become fathers in their early 20s, new research shows.

According to the British study, it also linked absent dads to delays in their sons experiencing the key puberty milestone of voice-breaking.

The researchers suggested it was possible the stress associated with not having a father around could have an effect on adolescent hormones and delay puberty.

Boys with absent fathers were more likely to have had at least one child by the time they turned 23 compared to those whose fathers were still at home by the time their sons turned 16.

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Free Parenting Seminar - Fatherhood is a contact sport (Adelaide, South Australia)

Are you the father or mother of a baby or young child? Do you want to know how father-baby bonding works and why it matters? Free Parenting Seminar – Fatherhood is a contact sport. Come and hear Dr Richard Fletcher, author of ’The Dad Factor: How father-baby bonding helps a child for life’ talk about his research and experience.

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ABC considers hitting boys in the genitals is "justified"

A reader saw a scene in a "teenage aimed" cartoon in which a teenage girl hit her on-again, off-again boyfriend in the gentials with a guitar. He thought the scene inappropriate and registered this opinion with the ABC. After a few weeks he received a reply from the ABC, which dismissed his complaint. He found some of the reasoning in the ABC reply quite inconsistent. The ABC comment that "the violence had a light tone" is mind-boggling!

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