Shattered Dreams and Broken Promises: Absent Fathers Essay Example

who said they were not close with their fathers cited a significantly higher incidence of depressed mood than girls who described their relationship with their fathers as close," explains Pamela Sarigiani, assistant professor of child development and family studies, Purdue University. "We expected to find the same pattern among girls who said they didn't get along well with their mothers, but we didn't. "

"So much of the early research out there had focused on the relationships of children and their mothers," notes Phame Camarena, a Purdue researcher and ex tension specialist. This study is telling us that, contrary to research that focused exclusively on mothers, dads are generally as important to the emotional well-being and adjustment of their kids as moms are, and that a good predictor of an adolescent girl's mental health is her relationship with her father. " He indicates that one critical time a daughter needs her father is during adolescence, when she is changing physically and is beginning to question who she is as an adult. Effects Of Absent Fathers On Daughters Relationship Development

Absent fathers can have a profound effect on the development of their daughter's relationships, especially when it comes to their relationships with other men. A father can be absent in many different ways. An absent father is defined as "those who do not interact with their children on a regular basis and consequently do not play a significant role in their development. Divorce, death, and abandonment are all forms of absence". Death of a female's father is simply their father dying before or during the age of development.

Divorce is when parents separate and the child does not live

with the father. Abandonment can be either through the father leaving and not returning, imprisonment, a continually working father (or a workaholic) and/or the father not being there emotionally. All of these situations of absent fathers can lead to different effects of a child's development. When divorce and abandonment cause absent fathers, the effects can be much more crippling than if the father has passed away.