Fathers impact on their children’s developmentDo you think it’s more important for children to have their mothers involved in their upbringing, or their fathers?Our society tends to believe that mothers are all important. The truth is that the involvement of fathers has significant impact on their children’s development.Pete Saunders describes himself as chief evangelist of positive fatherhood. He’s creator of the blog and website Razors and Diapers (www.razorsanddiapers.com) where he highlights fathers and fathering in Bermuda.In an interview with Body & Soul he stressed that there is research that proves the importance a father’s involvement has in the healthy development of children.Researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada compiled a summary of evidence on the effects of father involvement on children’s overall health in 2007. (The study can be seen at www.royalgazette.com).“The research shows that in terms of overall well-being, children are more likely to demonstrate a greater tolerance for stress and frustration if their fathers have been involved in their lives,” said Mr Saunders.Father of a five-year-old son with cerebral palsy, Mr Saunders said he’s noticed the truth in this finding firsthand.“My son has special needs so that running, walking, even getting dressed can be challenging for him,” said Mr Saunders. “I have seen that just being with him and encouraging him has helped in his development.“For example when it’s time to get dressed I may play a game with him to see who gets dressed the fastest, and we both race to put on our pants. As his father it’s completely comfortable for both of us to be getting dressed together. This is fatherhood involvement. It’s not complicated.”Kim Jackson, head of Government’s Mirrors programme was involved with social work and psychosocial rehabilitation in Detroit, Michigan for 11 years.“Involved fathers definitely bring benefits to the development of their children,” she said. “There’s been a lot of research that shows these children have increased educational achievement, better linguistic and cognitive capacities and higher IQs.“Toddlers tend to start school with higher levels of academic readiness when fathers are involved.”In fact the research shows father involvement as having a positive impact in children’s academic achievement throughout their lives. But the positive impact doesn’t stop there. It’s also important to the physical, emotional, psychological and social development of babies, children, teenagerss and young adults.“When fathers are emotionally supportive of their partners or spouses those mothers are more likely to enjoy a greater sense of well-being and good postpartum mental health, which in turn has good benefits for the babies,” said Mr Saunders.Men have been found to be the number one factor in determining whether a mother will breastfeed her baby.“The involvement of the father in comforting the mother, making sure she has everything she needs, helps the mother to breastfeed, which we all know is healthy for the baby,” he said.Research also shows that children living away from their fathers are more susceptible to asthma. This research indicates that children living at home with married parents are at the lowest risk. In cases where children are living with co-habiting but unmarried parents, they were deemed 1.76 times more likely to develop asthma. Children living apart from their fathers were found to be 2.6 times more likely to develop asthma.“This statistic caught my attention because of the high incidence of asthma in Bermuda and the fact that there are a lot of single-parent homes and co-habiting homes,” said Mr Saunders. “I’m not saying the same thing applies here, but that is the finding. So that’s likely to be the case.”There’s also research that shows obese children are more likely to live in homes where the father is absent. (It’s important to also note here that where the father of a child is obese, even if the child is living at home with them, there is a four-fold increased risk of the child to also be obese).