CLICK HERE FOR RESEARCH: John Santock's 40 year old paper; studying the school performances of 343 mixed age and sex children.
He tests and finds support for the following hypotheses:
1.
Father-absent children score lower than father-present children.
2.
When father absence is due to divorce, desertion, or separation,earlier absence, at 0-2, 3-5, or 0-5 years of the child's age, is more detrimental than later father absence, at 6—9, 10—11, or 6—11 years.
3.
However, when father absence due to divorce, desertion, or separation occurs at 12-13 years of the child's age, he shows more disruption on sixth-grade IQ and achievement tests than when divorce, desertion, or separation occurs at 10-11 years.
4.
Children whose fathers have died show more disruption when the father died at 6-9, 10-11, or 6-11 years of the child's age than at 0-2, 3-5, or 0-5 years of age.
5.
Boys are influenced more negatively than girls by father absence.
6.
However, when the father departs in the 3-5 period of the girl's life, she is more influenced negatively than the boy is when the father leaves in the 3-5 period of his life.
7.
Originally father-absent children who now have a stepfather score
higher than father-absent children with no stepfather.
He offers this timely but hitherto ignored advice:
"Attention should be given to the possibility of parental cooperation in the breakdown of the family when divorce or separation is the reason for the absence."
He tests and finds support for the following hypotheses:
1.
Father-absent children score lower than father-present children.
2.
When father absence is due to divorce, desertion, or separation,earlier absence, at 0-2, 3-5, or 0-5 years of the child's age, is more detrimental than later father absence, at 6—9, 10—11, or 6—11 years.
3.
However, when father absence due to divorce, desertion, or separation occurs at 12-13 years of the child's age, he shows more disruption on sixth-grade IQ and achievement tests than when divorce, desertion, or separation occurs at 10-11 years.
4.
Children whose fathers have died show more disruption when the father died at 6-9, 10-11, or 6-11 years of the child's age than at 0-2, 3-5, or 0-5 years of age.
5.
Boys are influenced more negatively than girls by father absence.
6.
However, when the father departs in the 3-5 period of the girl's life, she is more influenced negatively than the boy is when the father leaves in the 3-5 period of his life.
7.
Originally father-absent children who now have a stepfather score
higher than father-absent children with no stepfather.
He offers this timely but hitherto ignored advice:
"Attention should be given to the possibility of parental cooperation in the breakdown of the family when divorce or separation is the reason for the absence."
