It’s something we always knew in our guts, that teens who spend more time with their fathers would have higher self-esteem.
Now one new study from the journal Child Development studied the amount of time teens and adolescents spend with their parents, and also how the time kids spent with the fathers both one-on-one and socially affected their self-esteem and social skills.
CNN.com explains the results:
The time teens spend specifically with their dads may have critical benefits, the study from Pennsylvania State University found. The more time spent alone with their fathers, the higher their self-esteem; the more time with their dads in a group setting, the better their social skills.
“The stereotype that teenagers spend all their time holed up in their rooms or hanging out with friends is, indeed, just a stereotype,” said Susan McHale, director of the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State. “Our research shows that, well into the adolescent years, teens continue to spend time with their parents and that this shared time, especially shared time with fathers, has important implications for adolescents’ psychological and social adjustment.”
CNN also quotes another study from the Families and Work Institute showed that dads spend significantly more time with their kids than they did in the past.
The study doesn’t necessarily link the fact that fathers spend time with their teens as the cause of the higher self-esteem, but also possibly because of it.
Some fathers may be more “drawn to” their children who “have higher self-worth and social competence,” the researchers suggest. They point to another study that found dads are more affected by their kids’ personalities than moms are in how they parent. So in some cases, dads spending more time with certain kids may be the result of the kids being more social — not the cause of it.
The studies also don’t mean that mothers aren’t important, as the studies suggested that good things were happening in the families as a whole.
What do you think of this new study? Does it surprise you?
Do you have teens? How do you spend your one-on-one time with teens?
Photo of dad and son sledding courtesy of Shutterstock
So, science says that kids benefit from spending time with their father. That having a father who is actually interested and engaged is good for the kid. Wanna bet you could show similar result for spending time with mother?
Hey, maybe we could even demonstrate that having a healthy, loving family where parents genuinely want to be with their kids and invest time and energy in doing so is good for the kids. Amazing stuff, science.
This just in: Water is wet and the sky is blue!
Our friends down south just complimented us on how well-behaved and cool and calm our 12 yo son is…they asked us who he is more like, me or my husband…and I would have to say he is a mix of both of us, plus the babysitter) who is very soft spoken and sensitive…although I noticed on this vacation, he quotes his dad quite a bit (his phrasing and intonation are exact….like a Mini-Me!)…..and I was also surprised when he served me a glass of OJ at the breakfast table out of the blue (so sweet and so like his dad!)…… Read more »
I’m glad to see that they mentioned that it is very likely that fathers just spend more time with well-adjusted confident kids. I really have to disagree with the idea that time spent with a father leads to kids with more self-esteem. As someone who was raised by a single mother I can say that I’m supremely confident and have great self-esteem. Any time spent with my father wouldn’t leave anyone feeling much better about themselves haha I think that social and confident people are just drawn towards having more fulfilling relationships with others just because of their nature. Spending… Read more »
It also could be that mothers PUSH themselves into a childs life more, even when the child doesn’t want it. The fathers could be respecting the space desired by the kids, but on there are probably more mothers who have had more contact time with kids, better learned when to be around and when not to? My mother didn’t give me confidence, she did quite a bit to damage it actually, I’d hate for her to read this but it’s the truth. I guess it depends largely on your parents, my father helped to raise my confidence but he also… Read more »
Sounds like those kids with low self-esteem are probably a bit anti-social and thus dads are respecting that barrier. My dad did that, I didn’t wanna be around people too much but when I did I wanted to be around him a lot because he was a great dad. His influence was extremely vital to my upbringing and this study probably wouldn’t have figured that out. Why was he a great influence? Because he was positive, showed interest in me as a person, in what I like to do, he DID stuff with me (painting a room, fishing, etc) whilst… Read more »