Father’s Day prompts us to think about our dads and the ways they’ve made us who we are. An involved father provides his children with a crucial foundation for success in life. We know boys without a father-influence have huge obstacles to overcome. But there’s some recent research showing the important ways in which fathers affect the lives of their young adult daughters.

First — and not surprisingly — daughters with dads who encourage them to achieve….do. Linda Nielsen, Professor of Educational and Adolescent Psychology at Wake Forest University, writes, “daughters whose fathers have been actively engaged throughout childhood in promoting their academic or athletic achievements and encouraging their self reliance and assertiveness are more likely to graduate from college and to enter the higher paying, more demanding jobs       traditionally held by males.” And much more than in earlier generations, girls actually follow in their fathers’ career footsteps. According to Professor Nielson, “women who were born in the 1970’s are three times more likely than those born at the beginning of the twentieth century to work in the same field as their fathers.” Part of this is due to changes in gender roles. But researchers also attribute this finding to that fact that the current generation of young adult women received more mentoring from their fathers.

In a daughter’s romantic life, a father is extremely influential. Professor Neilson reports, “The well-fathered daughter is also the most likely to have relationships with men that are emotionally intimate and fulfilling.” She is more likely to have strong emotional communication with young men and less likely to be “talked into” having sex. The odds are, she’ll have a more satisfying and longer lasting marriage. Fathers have more impact on their daughter’s relationships with men than their mothers do.

This is true even though daughters normally talk more, and more frankly, with their mothers. In his book, BRINGING UP GIRLS, Dr. James Dobson addresses the crucial space a father occupies in his daughter’s life and heart, saying that if a father rejects, ignores, abuses, or in some way abandons his daughter, her yearning for that father role to be filled in her life becomes more intense. He writes, “mothers cannot fill this particular empty space.”

Dr. Dobson says that girls need their fathers as much as boys do. However, he’s noticed an interesting phenomenon that occurs, even in intact families: “daughters tend to be third in line for the attention of the man in the family.” He elaborates, “fathers know intuitively that their boys require special attention, discipline and leadership, but they are often unaware of how desperately their daughters need them.”

We expect Dr. Dobson to have some fixes for this, and he does:

One — lots of father-daughter conversation.
Two — lots of hugs, even and especially, when daughters hit their teen years.
Three — one on one time together…just Dad and his girl.

Dads, you are a treasure.  Happy Fathers’ Day.