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In Recent Years, a controversy has emerged over the importance of fathers in the lives of their children. This dispute has political as well as scientific and clinical significance, attracting strong proponents on both sides. There are those, for example, who maintain that what a child actually requires is at least one loving, committed, competent care-giver, and that the existing data do “not support the idea that fathers make a unique and essential contribution to child development” (Silverstein & Auerbach, 1999, p. 403). At the opposite pole are those who scoff