Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today.
I'm an associate professor in the department of family relations and applied nutrition. The focus of my research is really exploring how family-level factors influence children's health and well-being.
Historically, research that focused on understanding parental influence on children's health has focused almost exclusively on the influence of mothers. In his seminal work on infant attachment published in 1958, psychiatrist John Bowlby made no mention of fathers. In fact, the title of his work was “The nature of the child's tie to his mother.”
This early research demonstrated the importance of the relationship between the child and their mother. Bowlby showed that children experience distress when separated from their mother, and he hypothesized that these early separations could lead to later maladjustment in the child. Research also showed that children who were well bonded to their mother and whose mother was responsive and engaged with their child had better psychosocial and cognitive outcomes.
As mothers, we received both the credit and the blame for the outcomes of our children, while fathers were largely ignored. This proved to be a mistake, as ignoring fathers failed to acknowledge the important role they play in their children's lives. As recent Canadian statistics suggest, fathers play a key role in the lives of their children.
Since the mid-1970s, the number of dual-earner families with children in Canada has almost doubled, from about 36% in 1976 to nearly 70% in 2014. The number of stay-at-home dads has increased from 2% in 1976 to 11% in 2014. In 2011, over 15% of children in single-parent families lived with their father. In 2010, 81% of fathers reported participating in home-based tasks such as meal preparation and typical housework. Given these significant demographic household shifts, a father's role is a big missing part of the family picture, and researchers are working to address this knowledge gap.
As attachment research evolved, it started to look at how infants connect and engage with their fathers and found that infants bond and connect with both their mothers and their fathers. Moms and dads are both important attachment figures in children's lives, and similar to the results for mothers, there are many positive outcomes associated with children having a secure attachment with their father.
For example, compared to children without a father in their life, children who have a father or a father figure do better in school, and have better social skills and higher self-confidence. These children also have lower levels of depression and anxiety.
The presence of a father may also be associated with a longer life expectancy. A study among nine-year-olds found that children who lost their father due to divorce, incarceration or death had telomeres that were 14% shorter than children who did not lose contact with their fathers. Telomeres are the protective caps of chromosomes, and telomere length in early life is a key predictor of life expectancy. The impact of father presence may be greater for boys. This study also found that compared with girls, the telomere damage from the loss of a father was 40% greater for boys.
Fathers also play a key role in the development of children's health behaviours. Studies in Australia and the U.S. have found strong associations between fathers' eating habits and those of their children. Our own research with Canadian families found that fathers', but not mothers', modelling of healthy food intake was associated with healthier dietary intake among their children.
Fathers also play a key role in children's physical activity. Fathers also seem to play a unique role in children's risk of developing obesity. A Canadian study conducted at the Quebec longitudinal study found that the odds of having obesity at age seven doubled among male children who had fathers with obesity, while there was no association between the mothers' weight and the weight of their male children. For girls, having an obese mother or father was associated with an increased risk of obesity.
A key question arises from these studies. What is the cause of these differences in mothers' and fathers' influence on their children's health and health behaviours? How much of this influence of fathers on their children's health is genetic, and what is related to environmental or behavioural factors?
While additional research is needed to understand these mechanisms of fathers' influence, one potential reason for fathers' unique role with regard to children's health outcomes may be the fact that fathers engage with their children differently than mothers. Compared to mothers, fathers are more likely to use physical play to bond with their children, even in infancy. On average, fathers use more vigorous, stimulating, risky and competitive play with their children. This type of play is thought to help children develop physical skills, learn limits and boundaries, as well as develop social skills and emotion regulation.
Fathers may also differ from mothers in the way that they feed their children. Research suggests that fathers are more likely to focus on children's overall diet, as compared to the specific nutrient quality of foods, which may provide a more holistic or balanced approach to eating.
In summary, the results of this research are clear. Fathers are important to children's health and well-being. They play a distinct role in psychosocial development and long-term health outcomes of their children. Given this evidence, we recommend a family law that promotes equal shared parenting in families. An equal shared parenting approach recognizes the importance of both mothers and fathers and will support the best interests of the children.
Thank you.