Father absence and the cycle of teenage pregnancy in daughters

Father Abandonment Issues Continued

Teen Pregnancy

Father abandonment affects females in one area where it simply cannot affect males. When dealing with reproduction, daughters who have absent fathers tend to repeat this cycle of family practice and create circumstances where the father is unlikely to remain part of the family unit. This practice manifests itself in teen pregnancies and daughters who have been abandoned by their father, emotionally, spiritually and physically, must try to make amends for this devastating loss, and the procreation of a baby seems like a useful solution to regain this love that was not present from the father.

Teen pregnancy is a problem that is affects society at a very deep level. It creates families prematurely and leaves the children or offspring in those families at a disadvantage in negotiating life. Ellis et al. (2003) provided in depth research on this correlation in their work and demonstrated certain statistical relationships that exist between father absence and their daughters being placed in a high risk situation for teenage pregnancy. They wrote "in modern Western societies, adolescent girls face a biosocial dilemma. On the one hand, the biological capacity to reproduce ordinarily develops in early adolescence; on the other hand, girls who realize this capacity before adulthood often experience a variety of negative life outcomes. Specifically, adolescent childbearing is associated with lower educational and occupational attainment, more mental and physical health problems, inadequate social support networks for parenting, and increased risk of abuse and neglect for children born to teen mothers."

A Social Cycle of Problems

A viscous cycle is started in this scenario and it becomes very difficult for the daughter to break free of this pattern unless influences outside the family become supportive and helpful in adjusting to this problem in life. When young daughters of absent fathers seek such support they are often met with predatory agents who seek such vulnerable targets and look to exploit their weakness for various reasons. The role of the father to protect and uplift the daughter to help avoid these situations is not there and society itself is left to raise the daughter.

In many circumstances the mother will be the lone parent for daughters without a present father. The mother, living as a single woman, is exposed to the dating and courtship world when in a strong family the maternal role model is providing for her children and not herself. Daughters in this situation are forced to view dating and the attention of men as something more important than their own individual development and growth. The distortion in this problem is what leads to the pattern repeating itself. These daughters do not view their behavior as wrong, impractical or unacceptable. For many, this pattern repeats itself generation after generation and the results suggest that the destruction of the family unit is not very helpful to society in general and the ability to get along with one another at a large societal level.

To determine the determent of this problem, is difficult and complex because families and traditions can be shared in a number of ways. Draper & Harpending (1982) wrote " a sort of father absence is found in many societies of the world where father-absent upbringing is the usual or normative arrangement. Women in these societies have husbands and their children recognize particular men as their fathers; however, prevailing customs regarding the division of labor and relations between the sexes are such that men and women, with their young children, have limited personal and social contact, even though the marriages themselves are durable and economically sound. Many pre-state, tribal-level societies are of this type." In the past daughters could exist and thrive in these situations because their societal roles were laid in a way that they are simply subservient to the male. Western society places much pressure on young women in today's world, where the task of mothering must also be in conjunction with having a career that earns money and respect. These challenges are often overlooked when discussing such subjects.

Family Structure

The boy reacts different than the girl when the father is gone due to an inherent family structure where equal parts feminine and masculine are expressed in healthy behaviors. Many times, an abandoning father is a poor influence and can disrupt the family structure and, for the boy's sake for the better of his development. The need for a paternal role model is just as important for boys as it is for girls, but the girl can receive love and attention in way that is unique in this aspect, which is corresponding reflected in the mother son relationship.

Many myths and models have been based upon the son replacing the father within the family structure and such characters as Oedipus and Hamlet have shown the impact of poor father and its role on the son. Jafee et al. (2003) agreed with this when they wrote " the study of father's antisocial behavior provides new evidence that children do not always benefit from growing up in two-parent families. A narrow focus on family structure without a parallel focus on who is raising the children may do some children more harm than good, " (p123).

The family structure does not have to have certain gender roles attached, as long as the essential qualities are being delivered by those who are raising the child. Boys who suffer father abandonment have a stronger and more determined aptitude with dealing with the issue than girls due to the ability to be more flexible and finding love in the much more abundant and naturally plentiful of the feminine. Boys can find their own father within themselves without an actual person, but requires the love of a mother to provide balance to the equation. The same is reversed when discussing father -- daughter relationships and the need for balance in those instances as well.