Do Fathers Matter?: What Science Is Telling Us about the Parent We've Overlooked

A 2015 National Parenting Publications Awards Gold Winner
A Mom's Choice Awards Gold Medal Winner

In Do Fathers Matter? the award-winning journalist and father of five Paul Raeburn overturns the lingering myths and stereotypes of bumbling dads and disciplinarian patriarchs through an in-depth and personal investigation of the latest scientific findings on the parent we've often overlooked. Drawing on research from neuroscientists, animal behaviorists, geneticists, and developmental psychologists, among others, Raeburn takes us through the various stages of fatherhood, revealing the profound physiological connections between children and their fathers, from conception through adolescence and into adulthood-and how these connections can help us become better parents ourselves.

Raeburn shows us how the role of the father is distinctly different from that of the mother, and that embracing fathers' significance in the lives of young people is something we can all benefit from. An engrossing and eye-opening book that makes a case for a new perspective on the fathers in our lives no matter what our family structure, Do Fathers Matter? will change the way we view fatherhood today.


About the Author
Paul Raeburn is a journalist and blogger and the author of four books, including Acquainted with the Night: A Parent's Quest to Understand Depression and Bipolar Disorder in His Children. Raeburn's stories have appeared in Discover, The Huffington Post, The New York Times Magazine, Scientific American, and Psychology Today, among many others. A past president of the National Association of Science Writers, Raeburn has been the chief media critic at the Knight Science Journalism Tracker; the science editor at BusinessWeek and the Associated Press; and the creator and host of Innovations in Medicine and The Washington Health Report on XM satellite radio. A native of Detroit, Raeburn now lives in New York City with his wife, the writer Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn, and their two children.