Fathers' behaviours and children's problems

摘要

The last two decades have witnessed a growing concern and interest in the role that fathers play in the lives of their children. How does family life - particularly aspects such as biological fathers' non-residence, and fathers' parenting - impact upon children's psychopathology? The three broad theoretical perspectives that drive research in this area are the standard family environment model, the passive genetic model, and the child effects model. This article discusses the empirical evidence and concludes that to move the field forward future studies need to appropriately compare these three competing theoretical perspectives.