What do fathers do for their children? Hardly anything, we’ve learned.
Children with involved fathers are less likely to break the law and drop out of school. Guided by close relationships with their dads, these kids disproportionately grow up to avoid risky sex, pursue healthy relationships, and hold down high-paying jobs. They’re unlikely to become homeless or rely on welfare and more likely to have higher IQ scores than their peers by age three. Longer term, they suffer from fewer psychological problems and may be less prone to obesity.
It’s like these masculine hangers-on in the childrearing process don’t appreciate that they are useless. Can’t they just make way?
The fathers that stay around have superior genetics, including higher IQ's, which are largely hereditary. They are also mostly White, the product of the Eurasian steppe, not the African savannah.
ReplyDeleteErrrmmmm.....every one of the study's sociological findings has been in print, mostly by the Rockford Institute, as far back as the early 1970's. Sen. Daniel Moynihan earned 'conservative' accolades for his stolid defense of the intact family during the LBJ Administration.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the LBJ Administration did its damndest to demolish the intact family with its "equal pay" kvetching--which led to the diminution of pay for males and ultimately the near-requirement for TWO-earner families. Far worse was the LBJ (and successors) program to handsomely reward out-of-wedlock births, so that The State has become Daddy to millions of children in this country.
https://youtu.be/lkglkzyFUq4
ReplyDeleteIt’s like these masculine hangers-on in the childrearing process don’t appreciate that they are useless.
ReplyDeleteWorse than useless--they're actively destructive. Look at all of those examples of straitjacketing those poor children instead of letting them explore the far side of boundaries, seek their own independence at their own pace, develop their creativity in endeavors of their own choosing.
Jeez.
Eric Hines
The Eurasian Steppe ancestors were 5-10,000 years ago, the African Savannah is in all of our ancestry, 100,000 years ago. If you like, there are other north Asian groups you could appeal to as earlier, but they didn't show any marked superiority of IQ or character to the other tribes of the world. All that is real, but comparatively recent.
ReplyDeleteAfrica selected for disease resistance. Europeans trying to live there died out rapidly. Eurasia selected for dealing with cold and intermittent resources. I oversimplify greatly, of course.
As for fathers, yes, their good guy genes and their protection of the little ones from other males are their predominant contributions. We romanticise the other stuff - as a father of five, I certainly do - but those are mostly add-ons, and magnets for speaking about the foundational contributions.