Presents professors of psychology Vicky Phares and Bruce Compas'
findings that fathers who have behavioral disorders often beget mental
disorders in their children. Father factors leading to 'external'
problems; Fathers' problems; Effects on children; More.
By
PT Staff, published on November 01, 1992
CHILD PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
JUST BECAUSE FATHERS SPEND less time with their kids doesn't mean
they influence them less than mothers In fact, fathers who have
behavioral disorders often beget mental disorders in their
children.
So conclude Vicky Phares, Ph.D., and Bruce Compas, Ph.D.,
psychology professors at the Universities of Florida and Connecticut
respectively, after reviewing 577 studies on parents, kids, and their
problems. They contend that fathers, like mothers, contribute to
psychopathology in their offspring by direct interaction as well as
through indirect processes such as marital conflict and family
stress.
When Phares and Compas took kids as their reference point, they
found that father factors mom often led to "external" problems (such as
behavior disorders) than "internal" problems (such as depression and
anxiety).
Kids of troubled dads developed hyperactivity disorders, conduct
disorders, and delinquency.
Among fathers, external problems such as alcoholism and antisocial
personality disorder often contibuted to external problems in kids.
Although rarer, fathom with internal disorders have just as great a
pathological effect on their kids.
In studies where the fathers were referred or diagnosed, the
children had many types of maladjustment. Having a father with emotional
or behavioral malfunctioning is "a sufficient (but not necessary)
condition for a kid to be st high risk for psychopathology," reports
Compas.
The fact that mothers are primary caregivers does not negate the
contribution of fathers In their children's upbringing. Mothers and
fathers have a similar impact, positive and negative.
The time fathers do spend with kids has profound effects on them.
Henry Biller, Ph.D., author of Child Maltreatment and Paternal
Deprivation, says we haven't really acknowledged the special role of
fathers in children's upbringing. We only see them as helping out moms.
"There is resistance In society to really take fathers seriously." Too
bad it takes serious problems for us to take them seriously.
ILLUSTRATION: (MARYBETH MACFARLAND)
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