Effects of Absent Fathers on Daughter

Effect of Absence of Fathers on Their Daughter
Introduction
The traditional family dynamic of a father, mother and their children living in the same house is not as common as it once was. Today, it is now more prevalent that families are facing various struggles that cause children to grow up in single-parent homes. Death, divorce, or abandonment may all be reasons for the absence of a parent each having a negative effect on all members of the family. However, growing up in a single parent household has proved to be very difficult and often traumatic for children. Daughters specifically are affected differently when their fathers are the absent parent of their home. The daughters can potentially experience behavioral and academic effects from living without and father in their lives. These effects can greatly alter the lives of the daughters. When considering the effects on the daughter, the reason for the father’s absence needs to be taken into consideration as well as the age of the daughter at the time of her father’s absence. A daughter who has suffered through the death of her father will acquire different effects than those who have lost their fathers through divorce or abandonment as she may feel her father did not willingly abandon her. The age of the daughter is an extremely important factor; whatever stage of development she was in when her father’s absence occurred could possibly be stunted. Considering the multiple variables of the daughters who have undergone the absence of a father is extremely important when studying the behavioral and academic effects because it can often help provide a meaning behind their actions.
Behavioral Effects
Although behavior may partially form from genetics, environment has a major impact on the development of a child’s behavior. The behavior of s daughter who has an absent father is based on multiple factors. According to Krone and Bogan, the double parent job that the mother must be restricts the daughter from having the attention daughters must have (Krone and Bogan, 5). When a mother must play the part of being both parents to the daughters there is less attention that the daughter receives directly, weather that is the intention of the mother or not. Daughters of absent fathers may develop different types of behaviors then daughter with active fathers due to the lack of contributions that having a strong father figure in the home. Behaviors involving sex, drugs and alcohol, interaction with the opposite sex, as well as the view of the opposite sex are all different behaviors that are affected when a daughter is raised without an active father.
Although behavioral effects are prevalent in daughter with absent fathers due to both divorce and death, there are major differences in how their behavior is affected. According to Young and Parish Daughter of divorced parents typically participate in attention getting actions, premature sexual activity, and more interaction with men. Where as daughters of father who have died typically are more shy and avoid interaction with the opposite sex (Young and Parish, 218). Young and Parish identified one of the major differences in which daughters react around men, based on how their father became absent. The reasoning for this major difference is how the daughters view their father after their absence. Young and Parish stated that daughters of divorce or abandonment have an unfavorable view of their father while daughters of fathers who have died have a very upbeat view of their father (Krone and Bogan, 3). Daughter of fathers who have died do not see their fathers absence as the fathers fault or choice, but daughter or divorcees or abandonment see the absence of their father as the father’s willingness to leave her. The view the daughter has of her father is of extreme importance when considering the effects on a father’s absence on their daughters, because it will better help understand the reasons for their behavior.