Children who want a happy and fulfilled life should have a regular chat with their father about the things that matter most, according to new research commissioned by The Children’s Society and undertaken with the University of York.

Almost half of the young people ‘’hardly ever’’ talked to their father about important things compared to 28 per cent who hardly ever talked to their mother. It also reveals that young people are far more likely to confide regularly in their mother than their father.

The beneficial effect of a deep and meaningful conversation with your father is highlighted by a new analysis by The Children’s Society. Young people who talk seriously to their dads ‘’most days’’ score 87 per cent on the happiness scale compared to 79 per cent for those who speak ‘’hardly ever’’ to them.

The finding is highly significant because a great deal of academic research shows that a child’s well-being later in life depends on their teenage relationship with their father as well as with their mother.

As a first step, the Commission is today calling on children, experts and the general public to submit evidence about the barriers to father’s involvement. This evidence will be fed into a report to be published in the Autumn containing a set of recommendations about how the obstacles to better father-child relationships might be overcome.

REPORT INTO FATHERHOOD is available from the Society.
http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/resources/documents/Admin/21240_full.pdf