Research has shown that children who have experienced parental separation in early life often face developmental and behavioural difficulties through their childhood.
[1] In regard to the effects of father absence, a recent British study[1] assessed child problem behaviour in over 15,000 families using the clinical cut-offs of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), controlling for household factors such as resources, parental mental health and inter-parental relationship.
The psychodynamic approach suggests that for a child to develop a "normal" gender identity, they will have to be raised in a conventional family where there is a father and a mother.
Contrarily, others have pointed out that being reared in lesbian and single-parent households where the father was absent did not affect the psychosexual development of children, despite higher aggressiveness and submissiveness and lower assertiveness.
In particular, a study in prairie voles indicates that the gene AVPR1A affects the activity of vasopressin receptors in brain regions and thus predicts less cheating on their partners.
A meta-analysis[22] based on 56 twin and adoption studies totaling over 200,000 families has revealed that genetic makeup significantly affects the individual's parenting behavior.
A recent study in rural Ethiopia, where a father's absence could mean a significant decrease in household income, revealed a considerable difference between the well-being of male and female offspring.
For female infants, father absence (as opposed to presence) was associated with a lower risk of dying, as well as higher nutritional status.
When a young man matures without his biological male role model, this can result in violent reactions to stress and emotions, resistance and hate towards authority, aggression, early rates of sexual encounters, transferences of the mother's negative talk about the father, and pressured ideologies to become the breadwinner.
[25] Many studies conducted produce the same result: that the absence of a father in a daughter's life can lead to increased promiscuity and sexualized activity.
Ellis conducted one such study et al., "Does Father Absence Place Daughters at Special Risk for Early Sexual Activity and Teenage Pregnancy?"
Based on the 2018 U.S. Census Bureau:[29] out of 11 million single parent households, 80% of them are fatherless, breaking down to 1 in every 4 children born; totaling to a percentage of 81.5%.
[31] In 2005, the United States Department of Health and Human Services reported that the average experience of the American teenager includes living in the absence of their father.
[43][44][45][46][47][48] According to the evolutionary explanation, an unstable home environment (e.g. father absence) discourages a long-term mating life history, leading girls to adopt a short-term reproductive strategy, such as early menarche.
Moreover, the stress of father absence prompts girls to develop a variety of internalizing disorders, such as bulimia and depression, which may lower the person's metabolism leading to excessive weight gain which precipitates early menarche.
In addition, recent findings seem to regard genes, rather than the environment, as the mechanism underlying the positive correlation between high body mass index and earlier first menarche onset.
Some evolutionary theories propose that early childhood is vital for encoding information that shapes future reproductive strategies[57] in regulating physical and motivational pathways of sexual behavior.
[57] Father's absence can be a byproduct of initial social and economic strain within the household, as violence, lack of educational opportunities, and cumulative life exposure to poverty can increase the likelihood of early sexual endeavors and pregnancy.
The timing of first intercourse can be heritable; shorter alleles of the X-linked androgen receptor (AR) gene has been associated with aggression, impulsivity, a high number of sexual partners, divorce in males, and earlier ages of physical maturation in females.
[60] For example, the Cinderella effect, which refers to the observation that stepchildren are at a dramatically increased risk of physical abuse and homicide than children living with their biological parents.
[67] In treating some of the negative effects that young girls may have, transference to a male therapist could help facilitate the opportunity to fill any emotional void created through father absence.