FATHER ABSENCE AND AGGRESSION IN BOYS
"A child without a father is like a house without a roof." --A Buddhist saying
It is estimated that every night approximately 24 million American children go to sleep in father-absent homes (Saindon, 1998). Moreover, research indicates that children raised in single-parent, father-absent households are at-risk for several negative adjustment outcomes including suicide, homelessnes, runaway behavior, drug use and high school failure (Papalia and Olds, 1995).
The purpose of this paper is to examine for the influence of father absence on the development of aggression in male offspring. To this end, the paper first examines the literature supporting the negative influence of father absence on aggression. This review is followed by an examination of differing etiological models connecting father absence to the development of aggression.
The third section of the paper examines interventions that can be taken to remediate aggressive tendencies in children living in father absent homes. The paper ends with a series of conclusions about father absence and aggression in boys formulated on the basis of the examined literature.
Empirical Research Supporting Aggressive Tendencies in Children
There is a good deal of research supporting the notion that boys (but not necessarily girls) living in father absent homes are at increased risk for developing aggressive tendencies. For example, in some early work, Langner, McCathy, Gersten, Simcha-Fagan and Eisenberg (1979) examined data collected during the Columbia University Family Research Project, a longitudinal study on the childhood etiology of behavioral problems.
Data collection methods involved the administration of questionnaires to two groups of mothers residing in midtown Manhattan, New York. These groups were: (1) a cross-sectional group (N = 1,034 families, 56% white, 29% Hispanic, 14% black, 1% other), and (2) a grou...