The Effects of Father Absence on Young Children in Mother-Headed Families

Abstract

LEVY-SHIFF, RACHEL. The Efects of Father Absence on Young Children in Mother-headed Families. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 1400-1405. Effects of father absence in early childhood on boys and girls who live in mother-headed families were studied in a comparison of 40 Israeli father-absent children aged 2-6 to 2-10, whose fathers had died before their birth, with 139 children from intact families. Mediating factors usually pertaining to the situation of mother-headed families, such as paternal surrogate and economic circumstances, were controlled for. The behavior of father-absent children, mainly boys, was reported and observed to be adversely affected at home and in the nursery school. Strong differential effects were found in the response of girls to father absence as compared with those of boys. The latter were less affected or reacted in the opposite direction, being more socially assertive and striving for autonomous achievement. The ways in which the child-rearing attitudes of the mother were affected by father absence and her role as head of the family were also explored, as well as the relationship of these attitudes to child behavior.