O Father, Where Art Thou?

If you have been sticking with me through this series about fatherhood, we have a bit more to discuss regarding the consequences of father absence and then on to more positive things.  This topic is important to me for several reasons.  First, I am a father of three children (hopefully four sometime in the next year or two) and I want to be the kind of father they need.  Second, I am tired of seeing friends separate and/or divorce.  If these posts do anything to help just one father decide not to leave, it will have been a worthwhile endeavor.  Third, I see kids who are suffering the consequences of father absence in my office very frequently and I am often called upon to help the kids deal with them.  I see these kids spiral downward in the wake of their parents' divorces and would love to see less of it.


Emotional and Behavioral Consequences

The emotional and behavioral consequences of father absence are numerous and profound, and I imagine that many of you are quite familiar with them.  Children from single-mother homes have a greater risk for psychosocial problems, an effect which is over and above the impact of coming from a low-income home.   Young girls experience the emotional loss of a father as a rejection of them.  Continued lack of involvement is experienced as ongoing rejection. 

There are a number of other emotional and behavioral problems that are more likely in kids with absent fathers.  Post-traumatic stress disorder is significantly more common in youths with an absent parent.  Children with eating disorders and children who self-mutilate (e.g., "cutting") often come from homes where fathers are absent.  Antisocial symptoms are also more common in kids with absent fathers, a risk that is not mitigated by the presence of a stepfather.  Even more frightening is this: three out of four teen suicides occur in households where a parent has been absent.

Educational and Developmental Consequences

Children living with a single parent have lower GPAs, lower college aspirations, worse attendance, and higher drop-out rates.  Fatherless children are 1.7-2 times as likely to drop out of school (after controlling for race, socioeconomic status, sex, age, and overall academic ability).

Family Structure and School Outcome
Journal of Pediatrics, Feb. 2001

Father absence has also been associated with delayed motor skill development in preschool children.  I would suggest that this is due to the fact that the way fathers interact with their kids is different than mothers.  Play with dads is often characterized by physicality - wrestling, tickling, tossing, spinning, etc.  This physical play certainly contributes positively to the motor development of children.


Criminal Consequences

Given what we have already discussed, it is likely no surprise that criminality is more common among children with absent fathers.  A study of male African-American adolescents found that delinquent behavior is more likely in father-absent homes, especially when combined with socioeconomic disadvantage.  Children born to teen mothers are 3 times more likely to be incarcerated during their adolescence and early twenties than children of older mothers (as you will recall, children of teen mothers frequently have absent fathers).  Children born out-of-wedlock (and therefore likely to have an absent father) are about 1.7 times more likely to become a juvenile offender and 2-3 times more likely to become a chronic offender than their peers.  They are also 8-10 times more likely to become a chronic juvenile offender if male and born to an unmarried teen mother.  A Finnish study published in 2002 found that the strongest predictor of later female criminality was the absence of the father during childhood (odds ratio of 2.5).  Previous studies have shown that being born to a teen or unmarried mother increases the risk of later criminality by 2.2 and 1.8 times, respectively.

Have I painted a bleak enough picture yet?  We still haven't talked about sexuality and medical problems that result from father absence.  We'll hit those topics in the next post.  Then, finally, we'll have some positive things to talk about.  

Let me close by reiterating what I have previously said.  Fathers, stay involved, whether you are in the home or not.  Mothers, facilitate the involvement of the fathers (as long as the father is not dangerous to the child).  It is in your child's best interest for dad to be there.

The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.
 -Euripides (485-406 B.C.)

This is not a new concept.