A study in both US & NZ shows a very strong link that teenage girls in these countries engage in sexual activity and also get pregnant without a father present.

Studies from psychologist Bruce J. Ellis of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and his coworkers in the May/June Child Development state "These findings may support social policies that encourage fathers to form and remain in families with their children, unless the marriage is highly [conflicted] or violent,"

Prior studies have shown early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy among girls who grow up from infancy without a father. However, scientists have generally assumed that precocious sexuality results from a mix of adverse influences, including a father's absence, divorce, poverty, and the lack of parental guidance.

For their new analysis, the investigators studied 242 girls living in one of three U.S. cities and 520 girls living in Christchurch, New Zealand. Participants were interviewed annually from age 5 to 18, and their mothers were interviewed each year.

Among the U.S. girls, a father's absence was associated with his daughter's sexual activity before age 16 and teenage pregnancy regardless of other adversities, Ellis' group reports. In New Zealand, additional problems showed a modest correlation with the girls' sexual activity.

In both countries, rates of teenage pregnancy were highest among girls who had lived in single-parent homes the longest. The teen pregnancy rate was nearly 8 times as high among girls who were no more than 5 years old when their fathers departed as among girls in two-parent families. The pregnancy rate among girls who were between 6 and 13 years old when their fathers left was about 3 times that of two-parent teens.

In the United States, absent fathers were associated only with girls' early sexual activity and teenage pregnancy and not with other behavioral, emotional, or academic problems, the researchers say. In New Zealand, girls who grew up without fathers also exhibited relatively high rates of delinquency and school troubles.

Ellis is examining two possible causes of his provocative correlation. Girls who see their single mothers date many partners may become primed for early sexual exploration. Or, a father's absence early in life may trigger doubts in girls about male reliability that hasten sexual activity and reproduction, as well as promote a preference for brief relationships.

So what does this all mean? Does it mean that you should never leave your partner should the relationship be failing because you have a daughter, just in case she might become "promiscuous" – I find these figures both startling and perhaps a little bit unrealistic. Were they all the same socio-economic group and therefore might have been similar? Were they from the same area or even the same region?

If this is the case then it would be fair to say the absence of fathers is a more wide spread problem than first thought, it would also mean that every father with a daughter would have to make sure he was part of his daughters life in a hope they never ventured off the rails.

-Scott

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