The chance of a youngster reaching a good level of intellectual and emotional development by the age of five were reduced by 18 percent if their father felt he spent "nowhere near enough time" with his child.

But while the time fathers spent drawing, painting, playing games with or reading to his young one affected the child's progress at school, no similar effect was found for mothers.

Just over 1 in 6 dads (18 percent) felt they did not spend enough quality time with their kid, but only one in 20 moms (five percent) felt the same way.

A further 41 percent of fathers felt they did not spend quite enough time with their child.

Researchers at the University of Leeds analyzed data from the Millennium Cohort Study of more than 4,000 children born in two parent households in 2000 and 2001, and survey data.

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The findings held up even when variables that could have explained the discrepancy—such as a child's gender, ethnicity, household income, and their parents' employment status— were all taken into account.

Moms were more likely than dads to say they spent enough time with their little one already, but their feelings about whether they spent enough time playing with them had little effect on the child's progress.