On The Importance of Fathers

In many countries, Fathers’ day is much less widely celebrated than Mother’s day. In Ukraine, the situation seems even worse: very few people celebrate Fathers’ day at all.
Some might infer from this that this probably means that fathers are not that important, especially in Ukraine. Or at least, that fathers are less important than mothers. Luckily for men, however, there is plenty of scientific evidence that suggests that fathers do matter for many aspects of their children’s future.
Fathers matter for the future earnings of their children, with children of high earning fathers typically earning more and children from low earning fathers earning less. One study for the United States found for example, that 40% of the sons, born to fathers who are among the 20% lowest earners, are among the 20% lowest earners themselves. Fathers also matter for the future occupation of their children, with many children following their father’s occupational choice. A US study found that in the US about 30% of sons and 20% of daughters work in the same occupations as their father.
Non-job related aspects of childrens’ life are also heavily influenced by their father. Fathers who have studied longer tend to have children who study longer –a recent paper finds that for Ukraine, one extra year of education of the parents increases the expected number of years of education of the child by 0.4 years. Internationally, the children of fathers with more education score better on standardized math tests.
Studies using German data have further found that children of smoking fathers are 2.8 more likely to smoke themselves, that more trusting fathers are more likely to have more trusting children and that risk-loving fathers are more likely to have risk loving children.
Of course, it’s not only the father that matters – the above studies typically also confirm the importance of the mothers though there is no general consensus in the literature about whom matters most. Hence, for the moment, one has to conclude that fathers seem to be as important as mothers. Importantly, however, most of the studies do have evidence supporting that the parental effects they find are not just genetic, but that also the example that fathers and mothers set matters.
All the above evidence suggests that fathers have lots of reasons to celebrate and to be celebrated on June 20. However, it also allocates responsibility to them: if they behave better, it’s more likely their children will behave better. But if they behave bad, their children are likely to suffer.
(written on June 14th, and hopefully forthcoming in Investgazeta of next week)