Want to raise the IQ of the children of your community and your nation? Encourage fathers to live with their children and be actively engaged in their lives. The Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science recently released a study that joins with a multitude of other studies that point to the importance of fathers as a main ingredient in successful outcomes for children. This time the study looked specifically at IQ and behavior.
Here’s some of what it had to say:
For both boys and girls, fathers’ positive parental control predicted higher Performance IQ and fewer internalizing problems over six years later. These findings add to the increasing body of literature suggesting that fathers make important contributions to their children’s cognitive and behavioural functioning, and point to the benefits of developing policies that encourage fathers to spend time with their children…
The study acknowledges the myriad of problems associated with single parent homes – over 90 percent of them headed by mothers – and the study also points out “that fathers’ presence in middle childhood and early control might be important for children’s later cognitive and behavioural functioning for reasons other than fathers’ income contribution to the family, even among socioeconomically at-risk families.”
In other words, fathers contribute far more than just a paycheck.
It would seem that if governments were interested in having students who are better behaved – not to mention having higher IQs – they would promote stable man/woman marriage and engaged fatherhood. Why is it that the most obvious solutions are the ones that are so often ignored.
To read more on the study, go here.
