Journal Article

Does Father Absence Place Daughters at Special Risk for Early Sexual Activity and Teenage Pregnancy?

Bates, John E., John Horwood, L., Fergusson, David M., Woodward, Lianne, Dodge, Kenneth A., Pettit, Gregory S., Ellis, Bruce J.

2003

Overview

The impact of father absence on early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy was investigated in longitudinal studies in the United States (N = 242) and New Zealand (N = 520), in which community samples of girls were followed prospectively from early in life (5 years) to approximately age 18. Greater exposure to father absence was strongly associated with elevated risk for early sexual activity and adolescent pregnancy. This elevated risk was either not explained (in the U.S. study) or only partly explained (in the New Zealand study) by familial, ecological, and personal disadvantages associated with father absence. After controlling for covariates, there was stronger and more consistent evidence of effects of father absence on early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy than on other behavioral or mental health problems or academic achievement. Effects of father absence are discussed in terms of life-course adversity, evolutionary psychology, social learning, and behavior genetic models.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Inc,Blackwell Publishers,Blackwell,Oxford University Press
• Subject: Absence / Absent fathers / Academic achievement / Adolescent / Adolescents / Adversity / Age / Age Factors / At Risk Persons / Biological and medical sciences / Causal Models / Child Development Project / Childhood / Cross National Studies / Daughters / Developmental psychology / Disadvantaged / Early Parenthood / Empirical Articles / Evolutionary psychology / Family studies / Father absence / Fatherless Family / Fathers / Female / Females / Foreign Countries / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / Genetics / Girls / Health behavior / Health problems / Human sexual behavior / Humans / Learning / Life course / Life events / Longitudinal Studies / Male / Mental disorders / Mental health / Mothers / New Zealand / One Parent Family / Parent-child relations / Pregnancy / Pregnancy in Adolescence - statistics & numerical data / Pregnant Students / Psychology / Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry / Psychology. Psychophysiology / Risk / Risk Factors / Sexual behavior / Sexual Behavior - psychology / Sexual behaviour / Sexual violence / Sexuality / Single-Parent Family / Social factors / Social learning / Social psychology / Teen pregnancy / Teenage pregnancy / Theories / Timing / U.S.A / United States