The Role of Father Involvement and Mother Involvement in Adolescents' Psychological Well-being

to Eirini Flouri, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of Oxford, Barnett House, 32 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2ER, UK. E-mail: eirini.flouri{at}socres.ox.ac.uk Summary This study of 2,722 British adolescents aged 14–18 yearsexplored whether paternal involvement can protect against lowlevels of well-being even when maternal involvement and riskand protective factors are controlled for. Results showed thatalthough both father and mother involvement contributed significantlyand independently to offspring happiness, father involvementhad a stronger effect. Furthermore, the association betweenfather involvement and happiness was not stronger for sons thanfor daughters. There was no evidence suggesting that familydisruption weakens the association between father involvementand happiness, or that father involvement is more strongly relatedto offspring happiness when mother involvement is low ratherthan high.