As the single-parent family form grows in America, it is important to acknowledge how this affects the children of these households. Previous findings show that fathers have a critical role in shaping their child’s behavior and mental health, my findings have shown that these effects may not be as significant when the child transitions into adulthood. Utilizing the Transition into Adulthood Study from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), I analyzed the effects of a father’s absence on developing relationships. Main findings indicate that adults lacking a father relationship had more negative feelings toward society. Correspondingly, they were less likely to get married and more likely to get divorced. Other than that, they responded nearly the same to interview questions about their relationships with others.
Introduction
Whether it is called the father complex, daddy issues, or papa pains – the matter remains the same: people who grow up without their father bear life-long effects. A substantial amount of evidence points to the fact that father involvement is vital to child well-being (National Fatherhood Initiative 2015). Thus, it is a devastating trend that an increasing number of children are growing up without their fathers. In fact, children living in single-mother homes rose from 8 percent in 1960 to 23 percent in 2016 (U.S Census Bureau 2016). Without an active paternal figure, children not only experience a financial deficit, but are also deprived of a crucial relationship where they learn how to navigate social relationships.
While babies form an innate connection with their mothers, fathers are often seen as the first stranger and first representative of the outside world (Wineburgh 2000). A father then becomes the earliest external relationship one is exposed to, and ultimately their basis for others. So when a child’s supposedly foremost relationship fails, they ultimately formulate abnormal expectations of family life and of relationships. In this paper, I am interested in analyzing how these effects transcend into adulthood, specifically in the realm of developing healthy relationships. I observe how growing up fatherless* proves to influence romantic partnerships, friendships, as well as future parent-child relations.
A father plays an integral role on forming his child’s psych. Whether due to death, desertion, or divorce evidence shows that people raised without a father figure fair worse off than those who are. The exact influences may vary dependent on the timing of the father’s absence and the previous relationship or lack thereof, but there are common disadvantages that all fatherless children face.
Timing
Previous research has found that children who experience marriage dissolution prior to the age of 6 were more likely to have higher associations with delinquency, distress, and academic difficulty than those whose parent divorced later (Allison and Furstenberg 1989). These influences also continue into adolescence and young adulthood. Researchers using the National Survey of Children (NSC), found that 12-16 and 18-22 year olds from disrupted families show high levels of emotional distress, problem behavior, and high school dropout rates (Zill, Morrison, & Coiro 1993).
Negative Effects
Additionally, fatherless adolescents have been found to engage in riskier behavior. They are prone to using drugs and doing crime. 71 percent of adolescent substance abuse users come from fatherless homes and make up 70 percent of adolescents in juvenile correctional facilities (National Center for Fathering 2015). They are 20 times are likely to be incarcerated and 9 times as likely to drop out of school (NCF 2015). A father’s absence has also been shown to have the most lasting effects on socio-emotional development (McLanahan, Tach & Schneider 2013). These effects may show more noticeable patterns. Such that 80 percent of adolescents in psychiatric hospitals come from father absent homes and are 2 times more likely to commit suicide (Block et Al. 1988) (NCF 2015). Meanwhile, these mental health issues can also be internalized and expressed through different activities.
Different Effects of Father Absence Depending on Sex
Sons
Growing up without a father has different effects on the way the child learns to treat the opposite sex. Boys who grow up without a male figure have no one to learn gender roles from. Often this leads to them in being more extreme in adopting masculine or docile roles. This could either mean that they exhibit hyper masculine features, exemplified in media outlets, or adopt a passive position, basing their gender roles off their mother (Wineburgh 2000). A hyper masculine position may have been taken from witnessing their father in more aggressive roles.
Daughters
Girls, on the other hand, learn how to interact with men from their father. Without a consistent, loving relationship, girls may never gain a positive sense of femininity. Overtime, this could call for unsatisfactory heteronormative sexual relationships. If the father leaves during the oedipal period (ages 5-7), she may feel that her rivalry with her mother for her father could have caused the split. Ultimately, if she doesn’t resolve this loss, she will not learn how to appropriately interact with men during adolescence. (Wineburgh 2000).
Father’s Absence and Early Sexual Behavior
Data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS), have shown that children from disrupted families were 40 percent more likely to become teen parents, even after controlling for childhood poverty and behavioral and educational problems (Kiernan 1997). Promiscuity is another well-known effect on father absent girls in particular. One study found that the timing of a father’s absence has an impact on teen pregnancy. Girls who experience early father absence (ages 0-5), had the highest rates of early sexual activity and adolescent pregnancy (Ellis et Al. 2009).
Father Absence in Family Roles
Without consistent interactions with a father, the children did not know what roles a father has in parenting. Children who grew up in father absent household were found to have different concepts of parental roles. One study asked children 15 questions about roles of parents, specifically whether it was a mother’s or father’s duty. Children from father absent homes gave fathers a significantly smaller amount of activity responsibilities compared to their mother. 40 percent of the children from father absent homes only gave none, one, or two of the 15 choices. (Thomes 1968).
While there is robust evidence of a father’s absence on impairing childhood well-being, not much is known about the effects on adulthood. There is also little information on the effects of a father’s absence on developing relationships. I hope to give more insight on whether the causal link exists by analyzing how fatherless adults answer questions about their current or predicted relationships. Given the information available, I hypothesize that adults without relationships with their father will develop unhealthy relationships.
Data
For my study, I am us the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) directed by faculty at the University of Michigan. This is the longest running longitudinal household survey in the world, although it only measures a nationally representative sample of 18,000 individuals based in the United States. Since 1968, the PSID has collected information on a multitude of topics including income, employment, marriage, education etc. There are four main studies conducted: the main interview of one individual from each household biennially; the Child Development Supplement, which collects extensive information on children of the home; the Transition into Adulthood Supplement, which follows up on children in the CDS; and the Disability and Use of Time which focuses on how adults with disabilities use their time. For my analysis, I have used a subset of the PSID, called the Transition into Adulthood Supplement. This dataset focuses on children who’ve recently turned 18 from the CDS study. Interviews are conducted biennially to collect information about their use of time, psychological functioning, marriage, family, goals, and etc.
Since the focus of my paper is on the effects of absent fathers, the main independent variable I am using is how close the adult feels to their father figure. They were asked, “On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 means “Not Close at All” and 7 means “Very Close”, right now, how close do you feel to your (biological father/stepfather/adoptive father/other father figure)?”.
Respondents were also given a choice of saying the father has deceased or that they don’t know whether he is alive. I dichotomized this response by recoding those who had a somewhat to close relationship to their father against those who said they had no close relationship at all. I found that only 5.88 percent of the respondents had no father relationship. I then used this dichotomy to compare how it impacts the respondents’ choice in questions about relationships.
General Outlook
Before getting into information about the relationships the respondents were involved in, I was interested in understanding whether children from absent father homes had a different outlook on society. I looked at whether they had a sense of belonging to the community, whether or not they believe people are innately good, and how trusting they felt of others.
Romantic Partnerships
Respondents were asked about current romantic relationship status, the length of these relationships, as well as how satisfied they were. Whether or not they were currently in a relationship, they were also inquired about their perceived future relationships, if they see themselves in one, 5-years down the line, how likely they were to marry, and at what age they imagined themselves doing so.
Friendships
The only friend questions asked about the percentage of their friends who are involved in certain activities or hold certain characteristics. For instance, they ask how many are currently in school, married, working, or have kids. They also ask whether they get drunk or do drugs with these friends.
Future Child Relations
These variables were about the respondents’ desire for children and how they imagine themselves as parents. It focuses on how good of a parent the respondent feels he or she will be. Specifically, questioning if they see themselves being able to protect, influence, or take time off for his or her child.
Marriage and Family Opinions
Another part I wanted to focus on were the respondents’ opinions on marriage and family. These variables measured how they felt about divorce and its influence on children. Respondents were asked to rate how much they agree or disagree with certain statements. These statements focused on whether were if divorce or single parenting can hurt kids. It also asks whether children from these homes could be as successful as those from two-parent homes.
Findings
General Outlook
Only 5.88 percent of the sample respondents said that they had no relationship with their father. These people were associated with having more negative feelings towards society. In answering how many times they felt happy in the last week, respondents were more likely to answer never, once or twice, and about once a week (X2 = 10.75, p = 0.057). Additionally, they were more likely to report having less trusting relationships in the past month (X2 = 32.31, p = 0.00). 8.49 percent of said they experienced no trusting relationships in the past month compared to 1.47 percent of those with father relationships. In addition, they were also less likely to report that they felt as if they belonged to the community or that people are good in general.
Table 1 represents these variables in a linear regression. Both a negative correlation with trust and a sense of belonging were statistically significant, p < .05, and their belief that people were good was nearly significant, p = 0.051. Fatherless adults gave a .306 less of a rating that people were good, .379 less that they could trust people, and .449 less of feeling a sense of belonging to the community.
Romantic Relationships
There was no correlation between having a father presence and marital status. 10.38 percent of father absent respondents were married, 86.79 percent were single, and 2.83 percent were separated. There was also no significant correlation in determining if the respondent was cohabiting with a partner. The only statistically significant correlation occurred when respondents were asked how satisfied they felt in their current relationship. Table 2 reveals that respondents in relationships ships were generally satisfied. Although compared those with father relationships, those without a father’s presence were more likely to give a 3, 4, or 5 rating of satisfaction.
Friendships
In looking at all of the friendship variables, most were statistically insignificant. Graph 1 reveals that some parts that stood out were that respondents without fathers were more likely to have more friends that were not in or graduated from college (X2 = 34.21, p=0.00). Around 20 percent of respondent’s friends said none of their friends college compared to only 8 percent of those respondents with a fathers present. Additionally, fatherless respondents were also more likely to have friends who were not married or cohabiting (X2 = 11.16, p=0.025).
Future Child Relationships
There were also no significant correlations between having an absent father and the response to questions about their parenting ideas. Respondents with or without father relationships answered similarly to questions about their abilities to protect and influence their kids. They also felt similarly about having children. Respondents without fathers were, however, more likely to predict that they will be excellent parents (X2 = 29.53, p= 0.000).
Marriage and Family Opinions
Respondents without fathers said they were less likely to get married than those with fathers (X2 = 17.31, p = 0.008). 6.6 percent of fatherless adults said there was no chance that they would get married compared to 1.88 percent of adults with fathers. Additionally, they were more likely to say they would get a divorce (X2 = 18.73, p = 0.002). 17.92 percent of fatherless respondents said there was a 50/50 chance they would get a divorce compared to 11.48 percent of respondents with fathers. Fatherless adults were also more likely to say that children who come from single parent homes can do as well as those raised by two parent ones (X2 = 16.98, p=0.009), but responded similarly to adults with fathers when answering whether children from divorced families can do as well. Another statistically significant outcome variable was the response to the statement “single women should not have and should not raise children”. Fatherless adults had more extreme responses to this, 80.19 percent strongly disagree compared to 70.91 percent of adults with fathers. They were also, however, more likely to strongly agree 6.60 percent, compared to 2.30 percent of those with fathers.
In Table 3, I ran a multiple regression table to compare the impact of an absence of a father relationship and having a female father figure on the likelihood of marriage and divorce. While none of the values were statistically significant, it was interesting that the likelihood of marriage decreased and divorce increased in both cases.
Conclusions
Fathers have been proven to have an impact on their child’s well-being, ultimately effecting their psych and the activities they engage in. Because of these studies, one would expect a father’s absence to play more of a significant role on relationship development. There, however, turned out to be less influence than expected. To start off, I looked at the respondent’s general feelings about society. Fatherless adults had more negative feelings towards others overall, reporting more distrust in people and their goodness. These feelings could have come out of lacking a supportive relationship from their father. If absent fathers are the first experience one has with the external world, the children of these families could feel doubtful about all other people of society.
Although they may feel doubtful, the impression of an absent father does not prove to have much of an effect on relationships in adulthood. Adults lacking a relationship with their father are as likely to be in relationships as adults who are close to their father. They generally make the same types of friends and feel the same competence in becoming parents themselves. Some considerable findings suggest that children lacking a father relationship were less inclined to get married and more inclined to divorced. This response may be from adults who witness unhealthy relationships as children so are doubtful their own relationships will succeed. Nevertheless, adults lacking father relationships were more inclined to believe that children who grow up in single-parent households can be as successful as those from two-parent household. Ultimately, a father’s absence does have effects on children, but adults have the ability to take their experience into a positive light.
Limitations
There are other variables that account for the effect of respondents’ answers to the interview questions. It would have been helpful to have been able to separate these variables and determine their individual influence on respondents. Specifically, understanding the respondents’ demographic information, such as their gender and economic background could have led to more robust findings.
Future Directions
Further longitudinal data should be collected from adults who grew up without a father relationship. If there are as few causations as I’ve found, the increase of single parent homes is not necessarily a bad thing.