33. East, Jackson and O'Brian 2005. Adult daughters and father absence

Disrupted relationships:Adult daughters and father absence: 2005

LEAH EAST DEBRA JACKSON LOUISE O’BRIEN

Doctoral Candidate Professorial Fellow

Penrith South NSW, Australia

CLICK HERE FOR RESEARCH:  This small scale research is an example of how women are affected when fathers, for whatever reason, are not present as they grow up and the lasting effects through to adulthood. 

Many Australian children live in families that experience trauma because of the breakdown of the parental relationship.This is known to place children and young people at risk of negative sequelae and life adversity.

This study focussed on the lived experience and so a phenomenological approach was selected.

This paper explores the perceptions and experiences of a group of adult daughters about their relationships with their absent fathers from the time of the separation (which occurred in their childhoods/adolescence) to the present time. 

The women in this study expressed the desire to have a close loving relationship with their (missing) fathers. 

27. Mike White, 2010; Disadvantaged young fathers-to-be

CLICK HERE FOR RESEARCH:   Mike White runs a course for young fathers-to-be and is a director of a community-based organisation working with young parents in Wiltshire, UK

He writes about the successes of his course and similar initiatives to involve young fathers with the pregnancies and rearing of their children.

His advices should bear some consideration at a time when social, legal and UK Government practices do not encourage or require non resident fathers to engage with their children in any way but to contribute financially.

Quotes from Mike White’s paper:

“Attachment theories, in focusing on the mother, tend to underemphasize the role of the father in caregiving.”

“studies have shown that children with active fathers do show greater general sociability and ease with strangers (Frascarolo, 2004), improved cognitive functioning (Nugent, 1991) and fewer behavioural problems (Aldous et al., 1998).”

Mike White’s conclusion:

"Perhaps it is too much to hope that a national pilot project for young dads-to be is funded and properly evaluated to determine its value for young parents, their children and our society as a whole. Such a project would need to run for several years, but those of us who are parents know that parenthood lasts for the rest of our lives. Perhaps, as a nation, we should be developing a longer-term view of the needs of a particularly disadvantaged group of young people and the ways in which we might meet them. It may not be too fanciful to suggest that this intervention might be one way of impacting on the cycle of disadvantage.

"In many cases these young people are the children of parents who have been part of that cycle. By supporting them over a significant period of time, the possibility exists of improving their own life chances, and might also enable their children to break out of that cycle. However, we would need to take a generational view of such an intervention. Of course, the chances of that happening when politicians cannot usually see beyond the next election might present a particular challenge, but perhaps this is the time to encourage them to adopt such a view."