Are Fathers Really Important?

8 Pages 1956 Words

daughter¡¦s outright rejection by her father rather then from her identification with his masculine role. (Bogan, Krohn 4) This can be attributed to how girls learn to appreciate their own femininity from the one male who is special in their life-their father. If girls cannot be loved by their fathers, they can¡¦t learn to be love worthy. (Wackerman 2) Girls with absent fathers grow up without the day by day experience of attentive, caring and loving interaction with a man. Without this continuous sense of being valued and loved a girl can¡¦t thrive, but rather is stunted in her emotional development. Such characteristics include an intensified separation anxiety, denial and avoidance of feelings associated with the loss of a father, identification with the lost object, and object hunger for males. (Bogan, Krohn 4) Furthermore, they learn about heterosexuality trust, intimacy and indifference from their fathers. (Wackerman 2) Though the primary problem in fatherless females is an emotion stunt, many studies show their intellectual growth is incomplete as well.
Studies have shown that females with absent fathers often have higher levels of a diminishing cognitive development; poor school performance, lower achievement test scores and lower IQ scores. Father absence can also be related negatively to intellectual competence. This is a direct result of the dual role a mother must play, as bread winner and home maker, which deprives children of the attention they need to grow and develop fully. Without a strong cognitive development, it is difficult for children...