The Impact of Father Absence on Daughter Sexual Development and Behaviors

Abstract

Our study investigated the relationship among daughters from father-absent homes, daughters’ age of menarche, and daughters’ first sexual intercourse. This study was conducted as a paper-and-pencil survey with a total of 12 questions answered by 342 undergraduate female students. Results indicated that females from father-absent homes reported experiencing menarche significantly earlier than females from father-present homes; significant correlations at the p < .001 level were found between first reported menarche and first reported consensual intercourse. There was a significant group difference found between father-present and father-absent homes in terms of the age at which participants reported the first onset of their menarche. As there was a significant correlation between onset of menarche and age of first intercourse, it could be surmised that pubertal timing could serve as a mediating factor between father absence and initial engagement in sexual activity.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 15 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.