Nowadays, it's not that uncommon for someone's parents to not be together. It's estimated that
39% of marriages in America will end in divorce.
However, not all parents who divorce will become absent, as in most cases both parents stay in their child's life.
However, for some children the parents will become absent.
An absent parent here refers to a parent, who has no contact with their child and this can have a whole host of negative consequences.
These consequences could be due to a lack of role model, a lack of resources such as money or, even due to the trauma of
feeling rejected by a parent.
Wondering how an absent parent might affect a child?
Here are 6 consequences of an absent parent.
1) Lower happiness and cognitive skills
One study by Wu & Zhang (2017)
that analyzed the effect of absent parents, looked at children's scores for cognitive and non-cognitive skills.
It probably does not come as a surprise that those with an absent parent were less likely to feel fulfilled and happy.
It seems having present parents is vital to children's happiness as well as the development of cognitive skills such as mathematics.
2) Changes to the brain.
It's been found that absent parents can even affect a child's brain.
Yang, Yan, Fu, Du, & Lui (2015)
compared the brains of children with and without absent parents.
They found larger gray matter in the brains of those with absent parents,
especially in brain areas related to emotion.
This means that their brains were not effectively pruning neurons and may have lasting behavioral effects, though
the mentioned study did not examine this.
This is due to delayed maturation of the brain and shows that absent parenting can have a lasting impact on the brain.
3) Worse mental health outcomes
It's probably not surprising that something as traumatic as having an absent parent, can have serious effects on someone's mental health.
A study by McClanahan, Tach, & Schneider (2013)
looked specifically at the consequences of absent fathers on child's
development. They conducted a meta-analysis, which found an absent father was negative for overall mental health.
Specifically, four out of six of the studies examined, found a significant impact of an absent parent on general mental health.
So, absent parents have had long-lasting negative effects on the kids.
4) More likely to have substance use problems
As mentioned already, having an absent parent is distressing and
people in distress often turn to substances such as alcohol and illegal drugs.
So is there a link between absent parents and substance misuse?
Lacey et. al. (2018)
found that people with absent parents are more likely to smoke and/or drink.
Furthermore, the study talked about before; McClanahan, Tach, & Schneider (2013)
also found a link between absent parents and substance use.
5) Lower educational attainment
So, we've seen the way an absent parent can effect development in a variety of ways.
But what else does it affect? It seems it can also affect schooling.
Milne, Myers, & Rosenthal (1986)
looked at how children from single-parent families performed in school. They looked at kids in elementary school and high school.
They found overall, being from a single-parent family
negatively affected achievement in school.
Furthermore, research by Hurtes & Allen (2001) found that resiliency of the family was important to academic achievement.
So, it could be that families with an absent parent are less resilient. This was dependent on other factors as well
however, like race and age.
6) Forms romantic and sexual attractions quicker
One thing that may seem obvious
is that, our relationship with our parents informs our relationship with others.
It seems, having an absent parent does change how we form relationships.
One study looked, specifically, at straight woman and their fathers.
They asked some woman to think of a time their father was either absent or present.
They then were asked to imagine they were on a date and
asked them to rate how likely they would be to have sex with them and form a relationship with them.
They found overall, these women were quicker
to form romantic attractions and would have sex earlier if they had imagined a time their father was absent.
This was particularly true in households where a divorce had happened, showing that an absent father can influence a child's relationship,
once they're an adult
Are any of these points relatable to you?
What preventive factors do you think there are?
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