Dad Power

Study finds that dads empower their kids to take risks. (Moms, meanwhile, worry).

Now I know why my dad took so much interest in my personal conquest of the slide at our local park.

That slide—a towering, winding tunnel—had been the destination of choice for the “big kids.” One day, though—sometime after I had turned four—I confidently proclaimed that I was “big enough” to go down it. Yet upon ascending the winding wooden stairs for the first time and gazing into the abyss of that dark tunnel—I froze, and cowered away in fear.

The process repeated itself, day after day—go up steps, look down slide, retreat—and yet my dad wouldn’t let me give up.

“Give the slide another try,” he’d suggest every morning as we headed to the park.

It took a couple of weeks, but at his consistent urging and encouragement, I finally took the plunge.

There he was, waiting for me at the bottom, greeting my huge smile with a proud grin of his own: “See, that wasn’t so bad.”

♦♦♦

As Linda Carroll reports, fathers empower their kids to venture out of their comfort zones and take risks. With dad standing back (ready to swoop in if necessary), kids are more willing to try new things and can confront fearful situations without feeling as if they’re in serious danger. Moreover, when roughhousing with their kids, dads often take the lead in the horseplay; this, too, can be good—teaching confidence, restraint, and limits (pillows: okay, bats: not so much).

Carroll’s article details a study conducted by the Universite de Montreal School of Psychoeducation, where researchers observed how parents reacted when their children were confronted with “risky” situations. According to Carroll:

The researchers noticed that the dads tended to follow their children at a greater distance than the moms, and this seemed to encourage more exploration.

“We found that fathers are more inclined than mothers to activate exploratory behavior by being less protective,” says the study’s lead author, Daniel Paquette, a professor at the university. “[Dads] respond to the child’s need to be encouraged, to overcome limits, and to learn to take risks in contexts in which they are confident of being protected from potential dangers.”

That’s not to say that moms don’t have their own important role in nurturing their child’s growth and development. While moms may be more overprotective and less willing to allow children to wander from their sight, they “help children feel connected, anticipated and wanted.”

The results of the study raise further questions: are children raised by a single mother less likely to explore and take risks? Alternatively, what are the effects of being raised by a single dad?

—Nick Lehr