WHAT IS THE ROLE OF FATHER IN THE FAMILY?
The very fact that we ask this question is star-
tling, isn't it? It shows us what a change has
come about in family member roles in the short
space of a few years.
In the past, the answer to that question would
have been simply taken for granted. Even a child
could answer it, and his answer and ours would
have been similar-Dads love their families and
Dads earn money.
He might also add that it is Dad who makes us
mind when we don't mind Mom. The more
knowledgeable child might add that Dads are
necessary for mothers to have babies. But that
would be it.
Today, it is of course still true that it takes a
father and mother to create life, but beyond
that the father's role in the family is often much
less clear.
Surely, this is true in families where the mother
works for income outside the home, and often
adds as much to the family income as the father
does. But, much more than formerly, it is often
true that in today's young families much of the
day-to-day ca re and upbringing of the children,
their disciplining and the ir home teaching, is
as much the father's responsib ility and role as it
is the mother's. And in homes where this occurs,
it is good.
Psychologists and researchers have been telling
us for a long time that fathers should have much
more influence in rearing children and even in
sharing their physical care.
COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE • COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
In cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture
Issued in furtherance of the Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, by the Washington State University
Cooperative Extension Service, J. 0. Young, Director
And the earlier pattern of home life, where the
father was absent much of the day, often not
seeing his ch ildren except for supper and to say
goodnight, was not nearly as healthy a one, in
the minds of these psychologists, as the modern
pattern in many young fami lies, where the
father, fully as much as the mother, assumes
responsibility for rearing the children.
Research clearly shows that in homes where the
father is absent a good deal, mothers tend to be
more protective, and more overly concerned
about their ch ildren. This resul ts in the children,
and especially the boys, being more childish,
submissive, and dependent in their behavior, and
having difficulty in developing qualities of inde-
pendence and self-reliance.
Also, the presence of a strong father figure is
regarded by psychologists as necessary for boys
to achieve a strong male sex role identification.
A study by Dager among college boys, which
compared boys whose fathers were absent dur-
ing childhood with boys whose fathers were not
absent, found that the boys whose fathers were
absent were more feminine.
These boys also viewed their mothers as more
powerful than their fathers, and these boys also
tended to personally identify more with their
mothers than with their fathers.
A study by Leichty foun d that boys whose
fathers were absent during early childhood, i.e.,
between the ages of three and five, tended to
resent and dislike their fathers, while boys
• WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY • PULLMAN