The Role of the Father in Child Development

Book excerpt: This work deals with the fathers' influence on and contribution to their children's emotional, intellectual, and social development. It presents a broad-scale review of all we know about paternal influences on the development of the child. Early chapters cover history of fatherhood, images of the father in psychology and religion, and varieties of fathering and father-infant relationships. Succeeding sections examine paternal influences at different stages of the child's life (preschool, school age, adolescence), ethnic differences, varieties of family structure (divorced and stepfathers), unconventional fathers (gay, adolescent, abusive), and adjustment and father-child relationships.