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Key points
- Good fathering reduces daughters' chances of being overweight and dealing poorly with stress.
- Daughters who have good relationships with their dads are less likely to engage in risky behaviors—like drinking, drugs, and unprotected sex.
- College-age daughters have unhealthy, elevated cortisol levels when they feel their dads don't like them and are disappointed in them.
We hear a lot about how healthy food, exercise, and stress-reducing practices like yoga are good for women’s health. But what about their relationships with their dads?
What do dads have to do with their daughters’ physical health?
A lot, as it turns out. Infants and toddlers whose fathers are heavily involved in their care sleep better and sleep longer. In turn, these baby girls are more rested throughout the day than their sleep-deprived playmates. And children who are well-rested in these early years are less likely to be obese during childhood and adolescence—and beyond.
This matters because obese daughters are more likely to have lifelong health issues that often begin in their teen years: diabetes, heart disease, spine and joint problems, digestive problems, insomnia, and sleep apnea where they stop breathing for short periods while asleep. Obese women also have more miscarriages and premature births and more breast cancers.
Good fathering also has an impact on a young daughter’s stress regulation system.
When Dad engages in rough-and-tumble play and encourages his little girl to participate in challenging tasks that are somewhat “scary” and “stressful,” her body reacts by raising its cortisol levels, which is natural when our bodies encounter fearful or stressful situations. But when he comforts, supports, and encourages his little girl during these “scary,” “stressful” situations, he is teaching her how to lower her body’s cortisol levels, bringing her body’s stress regulation system back to a calm, restful state.
We know now that the way very young children learn to deal with stress is a pattern that tends to stay with them for the rest of our lives. So when a dad teaches his very young daughter how to lower her cortisol levels, he is giving her a healthy habit that usually follows her for the rest of her life.
Consistently high cortisol levels are bad for our health—leading to higher blood pressure, faster resting heart rates, and more stress-related illnesses. And again, dads matter. Daughters who have good relationships with their dads have more normal cortisol levels than daughters with distant or conflicted relationships with their dads. For example, in college, daughters who feel their fathers do not like them or feel their dad is disappointed in them have abnormally high cortisol levels. And college women with poor father-daughter relationships have more insomnia, headaches, and stomach problems.
Other female health problems are also linked to the kind of relationship a daughter has with her dad.
These include eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, and risky sexual practices that can lead to disease or pregnancy. Teenage girls smoke, vape, drink, and use drugs as often as the boys and are somewhat more likely than boys to binge drink. And in early adulthood, daughters in college are more likely than other girls their age to drink and to drink heavily.
That’s why it’s worth noting that girls in college who feel loved and accepted by their fathers are less likely to binge drink, drive while drunk, have sex while drinking, have unprotected sex, or use drugs. Interestingly, in this large study, their relationship with their mothers had no significant impact on any of these risky behaviors. Given the poor quality of their relationships with their dads, it’s no surprise, then, that high school girls from father-absent homes also have more health problems related to smoking, drinking, obesity, and sexual diseases.
In short, good fathering is good for a daughter’s health—not just as a child, but as a teenager and as a woman.
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