Father Absence Essay

Introduction

With almost half of all marriages ending in divorce, the trend of a father absence in his daughter’s life appears to have risen. The effects of divorce seem to hit the children the hardest, particularly the daughters. Girls and young women who have an unstable father figure seem prone to low-self esteem, unplanned pregnancy, dropping out of high school and college. As these young women become adults, they are more likely to experience divorce and poverty, and more likely to engage in promiscuity.

Definition of Father Absence

Paternal absence or father absence can be defined as “families where a biological, adoptive, or stepfather does not live in the same household as the children” (Nock & Einolf, 2008). This absence can be due to divorce, career demands (military service for example), death, or separation. An article titled, “Father’s Absence Increases Daughter’s Risk of Teen Pregnancy” says that, “the researchers (Bruce J. Ellis, 2003) defined absence of the biological or adoptive birth father at or before the child reached age 5 as early onset of father absence, while late onset of father absence was defined as occurring when the child was between 6 and 13”. This same article also states that divorce is the most common reason why fathers are absent in America.

Divorce and Father Absence

The most common reasons for father absence today are divorce, out-of-wedlock births, and incarceration. In most divorces the children are separated mostly from the father. Currently, the divorce rate in the United States if 50 percent, according to “Divorce in America Infographic” which was posted on the website titled, “Daily Infographic” (Jasmin, 2013). This data leaves you to assume that most children live with thei...

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...lthy and successful family. If a father is missing from a daughters life they are then considered deprived of a significant amount of love, self-worth, and confidence. The effects of a fathers absence has been demonstrated in the research presented as being damaging to the overall wellbeing of their daughters. It doesn’t matter if the catalyst of the father’s absence is divorce or having a child out of wedlock as a society we need to fix this problem. Before adults decide to have children they need to first prepare for a healthy marriage which includes learning the dynamics of a marriage. The logic behind this would be to decrease the amount of fathers lost to divorce. There are times, for instance death, when the loss of a father is unavoidable, but we need to begin to educate our fathers with the importance and impact they bring to their daughters lives.