We talk a lot about the value of dads in their sons’ lives, and the effects of an absent or negligent father on a boy’s development.
However, new data shows that the presence of a good dad equals great outcomes for daughters, too. Specifically, we can see how a devoted dad influences a girl’s self-confidence, and how a dad’s sense of success influences his interactions with his daughters.
The takeaway: how dads show up in their daughters’ lives has a lasting effect on self-worth, self-image, and her mental health as she enters the adult world.
What A Good Dad-Daughter Bond Brings
The study, published in Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, examined 120 dad-daughter relationships from the father’s point of view, and another 120 from the daughter’s point of view (aged between 18 and 21). The focus was on how the life history of fathers affected their relationships with their daughters. The data also tells us a lot about how those relationships affect the daughters.
For instance, daughters who had strong bonds with their fathers perceived themselves as more attractive. Daughters who perceived their fathers as less controlling also perceived themselves as more attractive.
The study authors queried whether this might suggest that dads have more positive interactions with physically attractive daughters. Still, there’s clearly room to interpret the causality here in the opposite direction, especially since the metric was a daughter’s view of her beauty, rather than any external metric.
Religion, Politics, & Authoritarianism
The study examined how dads’ religious views, political stances, and authoritarian tendencies affected their relationships with their daughters.
The authors expressed surprise at finding no direct correlation with political views and dad-daughter relationships, but did find that daughters with more religious fathers reported feeling less protected. According to PsyPost, a second study, examining 304 father-daughter relationships, did find that more conservative fathers showed less emotional connection to their daughters.
One significant factor is authoritarianism, or controlling behavior. Overall, better attachment between dads and daughters is associated with less control and more trust. Here, too, the direction of causality is open to interpretation. While the authors consider that perhaps dads with more attached relationships find less need to be controlling, this could also be read as daughters having a stronger attachment when they don’t feel dominated, but supported and understood.
The Education & Success Factor
The dataset shows a stronger bond between dads and daughters when the fathers have higher levels of education, financial security, or career success.
This mirrors prior research showing that better-educated parents are often more connected to their children. Wealthier parents also may have more free time to devote to their kids. When parents are at least financially stable, there is likely to be less stress in the home (or at least, there isn’t the specific stress of wondering if there will be money for food and rent). Hence, these are pretty solid factors for improving family relationships overall.
It isn’t easy to pin down the exact reasons this improves father-daughter relationships. One factor could be that higher education correlates with more egalitarian views, which daughters can certainly appreciate in their fathers.
What Can Dads Take From This?
Though the study’s focus may have been on the effects of a dad’s past on his relationship with his daughter(s), there’s something brighter shining through.
You can’t change your past. You can’t change whether you had a financially stable upbringing, or whether you had access to higher education, or how involved and attached your dad was.
However, you can actively make decisions right now about the role you play in your daughter’s life. You can choose to be the supportive, emotionally-connected father figure whose little girl is more likely to grow up with a positive self-image and stable mental health.
You can choose whether to be controlling and authoritarian or understanding and protective of your child’s autonomy.
Girls need good dads, too, and it’s in your power to be one.