Contrary to popular belief, growing up without a father figure in the home does not have an impact on the way children develop their sense of being masculine or feminine. Play stays the same for boys and girls whether or not there is a man in the house, according to a report out today.
The study, carried out by researchers Madeleine Stevens and Susan Golombok compared those children living with a single mother with other youngsters living with a mother and father to see if there was any difference in their gender-typed behaviour. ‘Gender-typed’ means how masculine or feminine they behave.
The team, based at City University in London analysed responses from nearly 7,000 families from the Bristol area, using research collected by the Children of the 90s project at Bristol University.
In all, they surveyed a group of children aged three and a half years from the Southwest area. Those with single mothers were defined as having had no man living in the house since the child was at most the age of one - and nearly 300 of them were involved. As a contrast, 6,420 two-parent families were also included in the research.
All the mothers answered questions about how often their child played with different sorts of toys such as guns or dolls. They told the study how often the children would play house or ball games and how often they showed certain characteristics, such as enjoying rough and tumble play or if they avoided getting dirty.
No differences were found between children living with or without fathers in the home, either for girls or boys, reports Madeleine Stevens.
This is in direct contrast to previous research by other commentators who have suggested that children growing up without fathers will be less typical in their gender behaviour than those in two-parent homes. It had been especially been suggested that boys may be less masculine.
This, of course has been disputed by this current study – at least for the early years.
Madeleine Stevens explains: “This may be because the differences between boys’ and girls’ behaviour are largely biologically determined. It may also be that there are so many other influences encouraging boys to be masculine and girls to be feminine that the presence of a father makes little difference.
Notes
Stevens, M., Golombok, S., Beveridge, M., and the ALSPAC study team (2002), ‘Does Father Absence Influence Children’s Gender Development? Findings From a General Population Study of Preschool Children’, Parenting: Science and Practice, 2 (1), 49-62. doi: 10.1207/S15327922PAR0201_3
ALSPAC The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (also known as Children of the 90s) is a unique ongoing research project based in the University of Bristol. It enrolled 14,000 mothers during pregnancy in 1991-2 and has followed most of the children and parents in minute detail ever since.