FATHER’S ROLE IN SONS’ AND DAUGHTERS’ UPBRINGING

Abstract

Traditionally mothers’ role has been emphasized in child care, upbringing and his / her adult life. However, although fathers may really spend less time with their children, they have a crucial role in both sons’ and daughters’ mental, emotional, and social development. When father’s role in the family and child’s life is underestimated, or when father is simply present in the family, but withdrawn from children’s upbringing, this can bring about very negative consequences. The goal of the paper is, on the one hand, to find out what people from various countries think about the role that father has had in their lives, and, on the other hand, to suggest the ways to reach a better father involvement in upbringing his children. Definition of fatherhood will be given. A questionnaire survey was held in Georgia and Turkey with people of different age categories (teenagers, young adults, middle-aged and old respondents) finding out the degree of importance of father in a person’s life, his contribution to the child’s knowledge, skills, motivation to learn and work, choice of profession, interests, self-confidence, gender images and orientation, feeling secure, etc. A cross-gender and cross-cultural comparison of answers will be offered. Both the literature review and the analysis of the questionnaire will expectedly reveal the great importance of fathers in child’s formation and further life. The research has not only sociological, but also pedagogical value. Recommendations to parents and teachers working with parents will be offered, concerning fathers’ behavior with his son(s) and daughter(s), his communication / parenting style, ways to stimulate the child’s development, raise his / her self-confidence as a person and as a representative of their gender, etc. The importance of fathers’ involvement in school-family relationships will be defined.