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.
Research associate Elizabeth Washbrook, who led the study, said,'Because we are not seeing the same outcomes in girls, the differencesare not likely to be due to the standard of care provided by fathers. Itis more likely to be because of the relationship and interaction betweenfathers and sons. For example, fathers may feel they have to betraditional masculine role models for their sons, but not necessarilywith their daughters.'
The research, published in the autumn issue of Research in PublicPolicy, also found that fathers were more widely used as a source ofprimary childcare in the first three years than either other relatives,or childminders and nurseries.
Around a third of the children in the study were regularly cared for bytheir fathers for at least five hours a week in the first year of life,with this figure rising to two-thirds for children aged one and two,with 13 per cent of infants and 20 per cent of toddlers being regularlyleft alone with their fathers for more than 15 hours per week.
Further information: www.bris.ac.uk/depts/CMPO.