No such differences were found in girls, but both boys and girls whowere looked after by their fathers for between five and 15 hours perweek were better behaved at the start of school, researchers at theUniversity of Bristol found.
The study, Fathers, Childcare and Children's Readiness to Learn, lookedat the pre-school years of 6,000 children from around Bristol who wereborn in the early 1990s and spent their early years living with bothparents.
Researchers investigated whether children who spent a lot of time in thecare of their fathers differed from other children in terms of theiracademic ability and behaviour.
The findings raised concerns that fathers provide less cognitivestimulation to their sons than mothers do.
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