Do Fathers Matter?: What Science Is Telling Us About the Parent We’ve Overlooked

Whether they are portrayed as incompetent or simply inconsequential, fathers have long been overlooked. In Do Fathers Matter? the award-winning journalist Paul Raeburn collects the latest research to show that fathers have a profound impact on their children’s lives-from conception to adulthood. He explains how fathers’ roles are distinctly different from those of mothers, as well as how fathers’ play helps to prepare children for the outside world. And he reveals how the connection between children and fathers goes both ways: children influence fathers’ stress, hormones, and relationships with their partners. Raeburn discards the myths of fatherhood as he searches for what we really know about nontraditional families, new fathers, and fathers of adult children, and introduces us to groundbreaking research that will change the way we think about parenting. Weaving in fascinating findings from genetics, brain research, animal behavior, and his own experience of parenthood, Raeburn delivers an incredibly rich and eye-opening look at the impact fathers can have on their children.