Realizing just how much Dads matter

For decades, psychologists and other researchers assumed that the mother-child bond was the most important one in a kid’s life.

They focused on studying those relationships, and however a child turned out, mom often got the credit — or blame.

Within the last several decades, though, scientists are increasingly realizing just how much dads matter. Just like women, fathers’ bodies respond to parenthood, and their parenting style affects their kids just as much, and sometimes more, than mom’s.

“We’re now finding that not only are fathers influential, sometimes they have more influence on kids’ development than moms,” said Ronald Rohner, the director of the Center for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection at the University of Connecticut.

Feeling dad’s love

Rohner and his colleagues recently reviewed decades of studies on parentalacceptance and rejection across the globe. Unsurprisingly, parents have a major effect on their kids. When kids feel rejected or unloved by mom and dad, they’re more likely to become hostile, aggressive and emotionally unstable. Parental rejection also can lead to low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy and negative worldviews.

21st Century Gender Equality

Domestic Violence · Feminism · Scientific Bias

Are Men and Women Equal?

We frequently hear the idea of "equality of the sexes"  but what does that mean?

Are we equal?

Does one sex have advantages over the other? 

Want to have a brief glimpse into the world of equality in the 21st century? Watch the short video.

Processes Explaining the Concealment and Distortion of Evidence on Gender Symmetry in Partner Violence

WHY IS THIS A CRITICAL ISSUE?

Graham-Kevan's paper fully documents overwhelming evidence that the "patriarchal dominance" theory of "Partner Violence" (PV from here on) explains only a small part of pv. 

Moreover, more such evidence is rapidly emerging. To take just one recent example, analyses of data from 32 nations in the Intemational Dating Violence Study (Straus, 2007) Straus and International Dating Violence Research Consortium 2004) found about equal perpetration rates and a predominance of mutual violence in all 32 samples, including non-Western nations. Moreover, data from that study also show that, within a couple relationship, domination and control by women occur as often as bv mpn qnd are as strongly associated with perpetration of PV by women as by men (Straus 2007) 

Graham Kevan also documents the absence of evidence indicating that the patriarchal dominance approach to prevention and treatment has been effective. In my opinion, it would be even more appropriate to say that what success has been achieved in preventing and treating PV has been achieved despite the handicaps imposed by focusing exclusively on eliminating male-dominance and misogyny, important as that is as an end in itself.