Dads’ help in kids’ upbringing boosts their IQ levels: study

London, October 1: Dads who spend more time with their kids are not merely fulfilling their parental responsibility but also boosting their children’s IQ (intelligence quotient) levels, reveals a new study.

According to the new study, carried out by Academics at the University of Newcastle, children whose fathers spend large amounts of time with them tend to develop higher IQs. The study also found that fathers’ involvement in their children’s upbringing significantly improved the kids’ intelligence level, and earned them higher social status as they grew up.

Lead researcher Dr Daniel Nettle and colleagues came to the conclusion after studying more than 11,000 men and women, born in the UK during one week in March 1958. Nettle’s team asked the study children’s mothers how often their spouses took part in activities with their kids, including reading, organizing outings and spending "quality time".

The researchers found that children whose fathers played an active role in their upbringing not only developed higher IQs but also achieved a higher social status later in life.

"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,” said Dr Nettle. "The (study's) data suggest that having a second adult involved during childhood produces benefits in terms of skills and abilities that endure throughout adult life."

In their research, Nettle and colleagues also found that men tended to pay more attention to their sons than their daughters. However, boys and girls both were benefited when their fathers were actively involved in their upbringing.

The bottom-line is that a father needs to be not just present there with the child but motivated enough to get involved into his child’s upbringing.

The more time you spend with your child, the more intelligent the toddler is going to be, concludes the study, which was published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

Impressed with Dr Nettle’s findings, Jon Davies, chief executive for Families Need Fathers, said, "We hope that research like this will lead to the government to reconsider how poorly served separated families often are and how a child needs a father as well as mother."