The Importance of Dads

Response from The Parenting Place to The Pacific IslandsFamilies Study Showing the Importance of Dads

A study of 1398 Pacific children over many years shows the impact of fathers on behaviour.

El-Shadan Tautolo from AUT University was quoted as saying, “If the dads are highly involved, you are really unlikely to have any sort of child behaviour issues. But as they become less and less involved down to the extreme where they're not involved at all, [the children] are more likely to experience being more introverted, smacking, hitting other kids and just really acting out.”*

Nick Tuitasi, who is involved with The Parenting Place’s Pasifika Families programme, has been involved with Pacific youth for decades. “The dads are key. The youth offenders and troubled youth I worked with invariably had very little involvement with their fathers. Thank goodness more and more men are seeing the importance of being loving and supportive. The ‘old school’ way taught Pacific men that playing and having fun with your kids was a waste of time – that’s changing. Ideas that worked in a supportive environment in a village in the islands don’t work as well in an urban setting and have had to change. A big problem is that men are still so busy, with Pacific people often working longer hours and several jobs to earn enough for the family. Pacific families have many problems but so many strengths as well – I think we are already seeing things get better.”

The Parenting Place commends The Pacific Islands Families Study for providing hard evidence for the impact of fathers. It aligns with a wealth of other evidence that confirms children do best when fathers are actively involved and interested in their offspring. An encouraging trend is that fathers spend more time with children now than they did in the past – one study showed the amount of time tripling since the early seventies**.

“Dads are taking their role more seriously”, says John Cowan, writer and presenter at The Parenting Place for nearly twenty years. “My gender has a long way to go – Mums are still shouldering the lionesses’ share of the parenting burden – but we are improving. They are less shackled by stale masculine stereotypes and are aware that they need to be involved with their kids. I’ve often met new dads who are quick to show off their prowess at looking after their infant. As the years have gone on I am delighted to see the proportion of men attending our courses increase, and our Fathers’ Breakfasts are full of men earnestly wanting to do better. Anything we can do to encourage men to hang in there in their relationships and be good fathers is going to have huge benefit to kids and the whole of society. ”

* http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/271866/fathers%27-role-linked-to-child-behaviour

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