Once upon a time there was Father's Day, a celebration dedicated to fathers and their role in the family and in society, on March 19, the feast of Saint Joseph, the archetypal figure of the 'head of the family' who takes care above all of the economic support of the family with his work and therefore does not look after his children directly.
A role that has changed for some time just as families have changed.
Fathers are more attentive to the emotional aspects of their children but society requires a high and stressful amount of work commitment from them.
However, fathers need to be with their children to work better and their puppies need 'involved fathers' to grow emotionally more serene.
New fathers demand it more forcefully than parents of previous generations, also asking for more parental permission and leave.
Now the effects of paternal involvement and the work-children relationship have been studied in a substantial study carried out by researchers at the University of Illinois, published in recent days in Family Relations – Interdisciplinary Yournal of Applied Family Science.
The benefits of being emotionally involved fathers with their children are mutual, due to a 'spillover effect' recognized by psychologists which 'transmits' the positive effects to both babies and fathers.
Better communication and shared activities and therefore greater enjoyment and satisfaction deriving from father-child interactions could in fact reduce fathers' stress levels at work by increasing their motivation to commit and also improving their job satisfaction thanks to the reduction in parental stress .
In short, children who share time with their fathers give greater strength to the fathers at work, giving them more balance and serenity.
All this would require a change of pace on employment policies so that both parents have the possibility of having flexible working arrangements, leave and support programs, say the authors of the study.
“Dads who are less stressed and more satisfied at work affect 'positive parenting', improving the relationship with their children and their socio-emotional skills, but it also has positive effects on the performance of fathers in the professional field, with better results and goals achieved, - explain the authors of the study.
- On the contrary, negative work experiences for fathers, such as extraordinary and unpredictable shifts, heavy workloads and longer working hours, negatively influence their interactions with their children and limit their availability towards their children.
Fathers who face low job satisfaction and negative work experiences may also be burdened by stress and adverse emotions.
This is correlated with greater socio-emotional problems in children and with more risky behavior in adolescents, as well as with a higher level of stress in fathers."
What better gift, therefore, for Father's Day than that of a less pressing role at work and greater involvement with your children?
“For many parents, reconciling family and work roles can be difficult and, in addition to mothers, we are now also looking at fathers who should be both 'ideal workers' as society traditionally requires, and 'involved fathers'.
Finding a balance between family and other areas of life, such as work, is a challenging task.
Fathers who derive satisfaction from their work may have more energy, resources, self-esteem and greater self-efficacy to engage with their children, positively influencing their socio-emotional growth.
“Without forgetting the job and financial insecurity that affects many families and which leads to dissatisfaction at work, so much so that fathers feel inadequate in the family and this perceived inadequacy can lower their self-esteem and self-efficacy, subsequently influencing their involvement as fathers active and engaged, with an indirect impact on the development of their children."
The study focused on the role of fathers and did not consider the well-known stress that working mothers experience in the dual management of professional tasks and family care and is therefore not complete, by the authors' own admission who hope for "new futures surveys that could also include mothers' perception or satisfaction with fathers' work".
How can we allow parents to be more involved in the family?
"Our study highlights the implications in the field of family education and workplace policies. It is necessary to support programs for both parents, not only for mothers but also actively involve fathers, educating them to reconcile work and family" conclude the authors of the study who propose new family educational initiatives that can include education on time management, stress management and child development skills and the essential role of workplace policies also in relation to family dynamics and in the development of children.
“Changing social expectations see fathers with new needs to balance professional responsibilities with active participation in family life.
In light of this, workplaces must adopt flexible and supportive strategies that recognize employees' dual roles as professionals and parents.
Family-friendly policies, such as flexible working arrangements, paternity leave, and the provision of childcare facilities or employee assistance programs, can be implemented to improve the well-being of parents and their children."
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