Children Of Fathers In Absentia

“The Effects on Children of Fathers-in-Absentia” Oakland Community College

Dr. Suzanne Cleck, PsyD

Class: The Fundamentals of Drug and Alcohol Abuse

My father left my mother and I during the first year of my life. I know first hand the psychological effects of growing up in a fatherless household. I grew up with feelings of stress, generalized anxiety and a pervasive sense that there was something missing in my life, a sense of being incomplete. Even then I knew that something was awry, but was never able to articulate my feelings or needs. Statistically, children from fatherless single-parent families suffer a myriad of maladies than those children of two-parent households. As a direct result
“…they are at greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse and dependency, mental illness, suicide, poor educational performance, teen pregnancy, and criminality.” (1)
In my First Paper, “Why I Chose to Take This Class, the Fundamentals of Drug and Alcohol Abuse,” I revealed that during my infancy my father was an addict and ultimately left my mother and I solely because he did not want to give up his drug-oriented lifestyle. I was born an addict by definition. My mother used and abused drugs up until the day she found out she was pregnant with me. My father never stopped using and is a current alcoholic and sometime drug-user. “Teenagers living in single-parent

households are more likely to abuse alcohol and at an earlier age compared to children reared in two-parent households.” (2) It has also been shown that the absence of the father in the home affects significantly the behavior of adolescents and results in the greater use of alcohol and marijuana." (3) I saw the use of recreational drugs as a norm and never questioned the legal or moral implications of its use.
Children with fathers at home tend to do better in school, are less prone to depression and are more successful in relationships. Children from one-parent families achieve less and get into trouble more than children from two parent families. (4) In contrast, Children whose parents separate are significantly more likely to engage in early sexual activity, abuse drugs, and experience conduct and mood disorders. This effect is especially strong for children whose parents separated when they were five years old or younger. (5) Compared to peers living with both biological parents, sons and daughtersof divorced or separated parents exhibited significantly more conduct problems. Daughters of divorced or separated mothers evidenced significantly higher rates of unwed teen pregnancies, internalizing problems, such as anxiety or depression. (6) "The
economic

consequences of a [father's] absence are often accompanied by psychological consequences, which include higher-than-average levels of youth suicide, low intellectual and education performance, and higher-than-average rates of mental illness, violence and drug use." (7)
Statistically, I have always been doomed to follow the path of the addict and the alcoholic.
It is said that society’s expectations become our obligations. Label (or mislabel) a child at an early age, call him a liar, a thief, lazy, no-good, and he will fulfill your expectations of him. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is only through my own personal awareness of these issues, a deep introspection, and a sincere desire and willingness to change these maladaptive thinking processes and behaviors that I will be able to break from the mold, prove wrong the expectations of society and statisticians alike, and walk my own path of
self-determination.

Footnotes:

(1) (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Survey on Child Health, Washington, DC, 1993.)
(2) (Terry E. Duncan, Susan C. Duncan and Hyman Hops, "The Effects of Family Cohesiveness and Peer Encouragement on the Development of Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Cohort-Sequential Approach to the Analysis of Longitudinal Data," Journal of Studies on Alcohol 55, 1994.)
(3) (Deane Scott Berman, "Risk Factors Leading to Adolescent Substance Abuse," Adolescence 30, 1995.)
(4) Parent Families and Their Children: The School's Most Significant Minority, conducted by The Consortium for the Study of School Needs of Children from One Parent Families, co sponsored by the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the Institute for Development of Educational Activities, a division of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Arlington, VA., 1980.

(5) David M. Fergusson, John Horwood and Michael T. Lynsky, "Parental Separation, Adolescent Psychopathology, and Problem Behaviors," Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 33, (1944).
(6) Denise B. Kandel, Emily Rosenbaum and Kevin Chen, "Impact of Maternal Drug Use and Life Experiences on Preadolescent Children Born to Teenage Mothers," Journal of Marriage and the Family 56, (1994).
(7) William Galston, Elaine Kamarck. Progressive Policy Institute, (1993).