Modern father participation in child's development and not only that

Abstract

The main problem of the study concerns the role of a father in the family and in particular his contribution in upbringing of children. New phenomena and changes in the life context have stimulated development of a new approach to fatherhood . Increasingly often the father is not necessarily biologically related to the child but is a person contributing to development of child ’s psyche and engaged in child ’s upbringing . The question appears if contemporary father still is the head of family. To establish the role of the father to day a study was made according to the ex post facto procedure. The study was based on analysis of documents, interview and a questionnaire proposed . The subjects of the study were 220 elementary school pupils brought up in full families and their fathers an d 37 children from incomplete families - brought up with out fathers. Results have indicated a significant importance of the presence of a father in a family and his engagement in the child ’s affairs on the child ’s development, school achievements and behaviour. Although many fathers are convinced about their influence on development of their children , only a few are aware of the significance of fatherhood on their own personal development.