Children that spend more time with their fathers have a higher IQ, a new study finds.
The results come from research that followed 11,000 British men and women for over thirty years.
Parents were asked how much time the father spent with their children:
- Reading with them.
- Organising outings.
- General ‘quality time’.
Thirty years later, children whose fathers had spent more time with them had better jobs and higher IQs.
The higher IQs and improved social mobility were still detectable when the offspring were 42-years-old.
Dr Daniel Nettle, who led the research, said:
“What was surprising about this research was the real sizeable difference in the progress of children who benefited from paternal interest and how thirty years later, people whose dads were involved are more upwardly mobile.
The data suggest that having a second adult involved during childhood produces benefits in terms of skills and abilities that endure throughout adult life.”
The researchers also found that fathers tended to pay more attention to their sons than their daughters.
The study was published in the Journal of Evolution and Human Behaviour (Nettle et al., 2016).
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