A 2016 Michigan State University study by Tamesha Harewood, Claire D. Vallotton and
Holly Brophy-Herb aims to show that fathers are more than just the “breadwinner.”
According to the results, fathers greatly influence their children in ways they probably don’t even think about. That’s right, dad passes down a lot of information to the young ones without even trying to.
And what exactly is being passed down, at least in this study? Parental stress. It’s defined in the study as “a parentally perceived form of stress resulting from the demands of being a parent.”
Got it. Continue.
“Using data from the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, this study examined the effects of fathers’ parenting stress during toddlerhood on children’s language and cognitive outcomes when children are 3 years old,” according to the study.
The research trio also looked at how the results varied by gender. What did they find?
The study concluded that, “Results from mixed linear models showed fathers’ parenting stress predicted children’s lower cognitive scores, but there were no gender differences in the effects of fathers’ parenting stress on children’s cognitive outcomes.”
So, it turns out that boys and girls are affected the same under these circumstances. Oh, except for one area: language.
“In the language domain, boys, not girls, were found to be more susceptible to the effects of fathers’ parenting stress,” claims the study.
Yikes.
“These findings indicated that fathers, in addition to mothers, should be included in early parenting research and interventions.”
So dad, you need to find ways to alleviate stress – like meditation, relaxation music, stress balls, etc. – or keep it away from your kids as best you can because it affects them negatively.
And we don’t want that.
By: Mark Padgett
Photo credit: Erik (HASH) Hersman/flickr
