The Role of Father Involvement and Mother Involvement in Adolescents’ Psychological Well-being

This study of 2,722 British adolescents aged 14–18 years explored whether paternal involvement can protect against low levels of well-being even when maternal involvement and risk and protective factors are controlled for. Results showed that although both father and mother involvement contributed significantly and independently to offspring happiness, father involvement had a stronger effect. Furthermore, the association between father involvement and happiness was not stronger for sons than for daughters. There was no evidence suggesting that family disruption weakens the association between father involvement and happiness, or that father involvement is more strongly related to offspring happiness when mother involvement is low rather than high.