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The Difference a Dad Makes in a Family
By Colleen Carroll Campbell
Posted: Friday, June 13, 2008

ARTICLE
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Publication Date: June 12, 2008

As Americans celebrate Father's Day this weekend, the changing face of modern parenthood may prompt some to wonder: Do dads still matter?

The answer no longer is obvious in an age of sperm donors, single-motherhood-by-choice and same-sex adoption. The reproductive options made possible by today's technological advances are dizzying, from the manufacture of embryos with three genetic parents to the creation of scores of children who have different mothers but the same anonymous genetic father, a man who never lays eyes on the women who bear his biological children.

In some countries, the concept of biological fatherhood has lost its legal standing. Canada has replaced references in federal law to the biological or "natural parent" with "legal parent" to accommodate the same-sex couples who now can marry there. A similar rationale led Spain to replace birth-certificate references to "mother" and "father" with "Progenitor A" and "Progenitor B."

In the United States, some judges now use the concept of "psychological parenthood" as a basis to grant legal parental rights to adults who are unrelated to a child by biology, marriage or adoption — even, in some cases, when the child's biological parent objects.

Such developments may strike us as odd, but they merely are the latest rounds in a long-running war on fatherhood. The more destructive shots were fired decades ago during a sexual revolution that shattered the social stigma attached to men who abandon the children they beget. Fatherhood was further weakened by the advent of no-fault divorce laws and an abortion license that encouraged male sexual irresponsibility and left men no legal right to defend the lives of their unborn children. Today, as one-third of American children are born outside marriage, and many consider the married, mother-father family an anachronism, fathers seem more expendable than ever.

Before we swap Father's Day for Progenitor's Day, we ought to reflect on the host of social science studies that corroborate a notion once considered simple common sense: Dads make a distinctly valuable contribution to the development of their children.

Such studies are highlighted in the 2007 Father Facts report, a comprehensive reference manual on fatherhood-related research published by the non-profit, non-partisan National Fatherhood Initiative. The report cites reams of research showing how a father's sustained, committed involvement with his children benefits them in everything from scholastic achievement (children with involved fathers are more likely to excel academically and graduate) to social skills: Children who engage regularly in roughhousing with their fathers are more likely to learn impulse control, be popular among peers and avoid becoming victims of bullies.

Highly involved fathers have a moderating effect on their children, leading sons to be less aggressive and more empathetic and leading daughters to be more confident and less promiscuous.

University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox, who co-authored with Jeffrey Rosenberg a 2006 federal fatherhood report showcasing similar findings, notes that caring, highly involved fathers exist outside marriage but most often are found within marriage. The typical parenting tendencies of fathers seem to complement those of mothers, with fathers in the average married home taking the lead in providing for, protecting, challenging and disciplining their children.

"Fathers are not fungible," Wilcox told me. "They are not second-class mothers. They play a unique and irreplaceable role in the lives of children." Intentionally fatherless families may satisfy adult desires, but when it comes to child welfare, they leave much to be desired. In our compassion for those for whom the traditional ideal of a married, mother-father family seems out of reach, we should not ignore the stark reality revealed by common sense and social science: Children still need their fathers.

-- Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St. Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is www.colleen-campbell.com.