The Importance of Paternal Warmth

Abstract

Cross-cultural and intra-cultural comparative research into the relationship between paternal behaviors and offspring development has tended to overlook the influence of paternal warmth by assessing only the physical availability of the father or by focusing on parental versus paternal and maternal warmth. Consequently, this article uses comparative methodology to explore the relationship between warm and affectionate paternal behavior and offspring behavior in diverse sociocultural contexts. Results show that paternal physical availability is a much less significant construct for predicting paternal influences on offspring functioning than is paternal warmth and that codes for paternal physical availability are not profitable or beneficial proxies for paternal warmth and affection. Finally, the findings indicate that paternal warmth is often a more significant predictor of youths' functioning than is maternal warmth. These cross-cultural comparative findings are consistent with multivariate studies done in the United States during the last decade.