Are you constantly being told how much your child looks like their dad?
According to science, this could be a very good thing.
Research has found that children who bear a resemblance with their fathers generally have better health than those who don’t.
A new study published in the Journal of Health Economics found that infants that looks like their dads at birth were not only healthier by the time they reached their first birthday but that they also spent more time with their dads.
The researchers at Binghamton University studied the interactions between babies and fathers who did not live in the same household.
They discovered that fathers whose infants looked like them spent an average of 2.5 more days per month with their kids than those dads who didn’t perceive a resemblance to their children.
So why is this? Well, the researchers have a theory;
“We find a child’s health indicators improve when the child looks like the father…The main explanation is that frequent father visits allow for greater parental time for care-giving and supervision, and for information gathering about child health and economic needs. It’s been said that ‘it takes a village’ but my coauthor, Marlon Tracey, and I find that having an involved father certainly helps.”
I don’t know if this is true in all cases as my daughter and myself are basically twins but her dad still spends a large amount of his time bonding with her.
What do you think? Do you think dads spend more time with their child based on resemblance?
