W. Bradford Wilcox, the director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, is the author of “Gender and Parenthood: Biological and Social Scientific Perspectives.” He is on Twitter.

It can be tempting — in a world where women are increasingly likely to be single mothers, “breadwinner moms” or supermoms seemingly able to do it all — to think of men as superfluous to the family. From Hollywood to academia, this view has tremendous currency. In “Raising Boys Without Men,” for instance, the Cornell psychologist Peggy Drexler put it this way: “women possess the innate mompower that in itself is more than sufficient to raise fine sons.”

But the view that men are superfluous in today’s families is dead wrong. While it is certainly true that some children raised without fathers turn out just fine (I did), on average, girls and boys are much more likely to thrive when they have the benefit of a father’s time, attention, discipline and especially affection.

Some children raised without fathers turn out fine (I did), but girls and boys are more likely to thrive with a father’s time, attention, discipline and especially affection.

Boys are more likely to steer clear of trouble with the law when they grow up with their father in the home. One Princeton study found that boys raised apart from their fathers were two to three times more likely to end up in jail before they turned 30.

Dads matter for daughters as well. Another study found that girls whose fathers disappeared before the girls turned 6 were about five times more likely to end up pregnant as teenagers than were their peers raised with their fathers in the home.

And we know that kids — especially boys — are more likely to excel in school, and to steer clear of the principal’s office, when they are raised in a home with a father who takes their homework and school conduct seriously.

So, even though many men cannot or need not serve as the primary breadwinners in their families, modern couples need to recognize that fathers’ contributions to their children’s welfare extend well beyond money.

President Obama put it well: “Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded … that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation. They are teachers and coaches. They are mentors and role models. They are examples of success and the men who constantly push us toward it.”