It’s time for dads to step up, family experts are stressing, as modern-day girls face unprecedented anxiety about the world around them.

While research suggests a growing number of Australian men are becoming stay-at-home parents, experts say they need to foster a different kind of relationship with their child than may have been the case in past generations.

From understanding social media pressures to influencing their kids’ future relationships, the role of the dad may have never been more important.

The girls aren’t alright

Parent educator and author Steve Biddulph was a psychologist for 25 years and said while we used to worry about how boys would turn out, now the focus must shift to young girls.

“Girls were flying along, but in the last decade the mental health of girls has plummeted because they have different risk factors to boys,” he told ABC News Breakfast.

“Girls are more sensitive to the social world around them on the whole and more aware of the pressures that come at them and so it is their anxiety that has become our greatest concern.”

Mr Biddulph’s research has been compiled in his new book, 10 Things Girls Need Most, and he has found these increased anxiety levels can be tracked in girls as young as eight.

He said this anxiety then drove other issues like eating disorders, self-harm, risky drinking and risky sexual behaviour.

 

– Patrick Wood

Read More: Hey dads, are you positive role models for your daughters?