Alita Ingle

Defense Paper

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Women all across our nation suffer from the absence of a father figure.Studies
have shown that the increase of divorce directly correlates with the increase of an
absent father figure. . Growing up without a father has shown to result in low self image,
Teenage Pregnancy, depression, anorexia/bulimia, and low education across a variety
of cultures (Mancini 1.) A strong father figure is detrimental to a young girls health and
emotional growth. Security is needed for a young girl to grow up and form into a
confident woman. When there is a lack of security, it tends to turn into long lasting
psychological repercussions.That said, I have chosen to create a piece of art which
would raise awareness for women who come and go in and out of hospitals, who
struggle with what we would call Daddy Issues.
My art piece is a smaller version of a woman in a hospital represented by a
barbie doll in a medical bed. Around the doll, on a white sheet, I have added all the long
term psychological effects that growing up without a father figure has on a female. The
white sheet represents the pure mind of an innocent child, and the words around
represent the slow process of corruption as that child grows up. I grouped together the
words low self image, Depression, and bulimia/anorexia, to show that these things
are linked together. When a young woman suffers from low self image, it can lead to
depression, and eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. The other effects were
randomly placed around the doll. According to my resources, most of the psychological

effects that I found start to come into play in teenage years, which is why I chose to use
a barbie doll.
In my piece of art I have labeled my doll with low self image/esteem. I chose
this based off of studies I have found that show how a positive father-daughter
relationship facilitates high self image/esteem. Of course, turning the tables, we also
see that the lack of a father-daughter relationship can cause low self image/esteem.
The fathers role in a young girls life is to be an impressive example to show her how a
man should treat a woman (Zia 7.) I chose to research a females lowered self esteem
and the correlation it has with her relationship with her father because it is prominent in
our culture today. Why am I just focusing on the daughter, and not the relationship
between a father and his son? Its simple. The father is supposed to support a nurturing
relationship requiring a more soft and caring intimacy which is normally not shared
between a father and his son, but between a father and his little girl. Most men cannot
handle the pressure of caring for such a fragile bond shared with their daughter, and this
is why they leave (Zia 8.)
Another long term resultthat I chose to include in my art piece is teenage
pregnancy. After much research on teenage pregnancy and the psychological derivation
that can be found in a young womans past, I found that most of the teenage
pregnancies we see come from an insecure female who grew up without a strong male
leader of her household (Nielsen 2.) Mancini, author of Father Absence and Its Effects
on Daughters, suggests that girls whose father left at an early age, and those who
were raised in their fathers absence are more likely to interact with males at a younger
age. These females tend to seek to fill the void that their father emotionally left on

them (Mancini 11.) Teenage pregnancy also heavily depends on when the young
woman undergoes puberty. If the members of her family tend to treat her differently, she
will expect the general population (especially male) to also treat her differently. If she
had a strong father figure to ensure her that this is not the case, she would not look for
the attention elsewhere. There are many studies that show that the mother also has an
effect on teenage pregnancy, like if she got pregnant as a teeager, but statistcs say the
father heavily affects a teenage pregnancy. In one of my articles, the numbers show that
almost 111% more of the population of women who grew up without a father would
conceive a child in their teenage years (Tanner 3.) This information is important to my
project because it shows that teenage pregnancy could be better controlled if females
grew up with more security from a strong male leader in the home.
Depression was one of the stronger repercussions of an absent father figure that
I found in many of my sources. I chose to show in my piece that depression was a
distinct factor stemming from early childhood fear. This fear comes from a negative selfevaluative process that a child learns early on in their life, and this is based off of how
their parents discipline. When a child only hears negative feedback from a parent about
their behavior, they will grow to view themselves with a lower evaluation. Along with this
low evaluation and lack of confidence the child will tend to dompare themselves with
other children, such as how other childrens relationships with their fathers are. In
studies conducted on children without fathers, the correlation between depression and
the childs awareness that they are without a father high. Women who suffer from
depression can often trace their emotional pain back to their childhood. Studies show
that 23% of women who suffer from depression grew up fatherless (Zia 9.)

I chose to write about anorexia/bulimia because eating disorders are extremely

prominent in teenage girls and can potentially extend into a females adulthood (Macini
14.) Eating disorders can also be tied into low self-image and depression, as I wrote
about previously. Anorexia and Bulimia are not direct consequences of an absent father
figure in a females life, but the after-effect of low self-image, depression, and lack of a
positive affirmation from a male. According to Julian Marcus, a stress management
specialist who writes for askmen.com, a positive influencing father is one who helps
their daughter understand and recognize positive traits that they obtain (Macini 26.) I
chose to write about these eating disorders because they tie into all of the other long
term psychological effects the absence of a father figure has on a female.
Lastly, I chose to use low education to represent one of the effects an absent
father figure can cause in a females life. Researchers found that well fathered young
girls are usually more self-confident, more self-reliant, and more successful
academically than poorly fathered young women (Nielsen 5.) A father figure is
encouraged to give his daughter academic support, and the daughters seem to react
negatively without a father present. Furthermore, studies have shown that females with
absent fathers often have diminished cognitive development; poor school performance,
lower achievement test scores, and lower IQ scores (Mancini 12.)
If I could physically place my art piece in a hospital I believe I could raise more
awareness of my topic for those who probably havent even thought twice about it.I
believe that women all across our country should be aware of the effects that growing
up without a father can leave on a female emotionally, physically and mentally. There
are women who come and go from hospitals everywhere who may suffer from any one

of these psychological effects, and have no idea where their pain may or may not stem
back to. After much thought and time put into this art piece, I believe that someone will
be able to recognize their pain, and make their life better because of it.

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New Works Cited

Mancini, Lisa. "Western Connecticut State University ... - WCSU Library." FATHER
ABSENCE
AND ITS EFFECTS ON DAUGHTERS. 1-26, 11 May 2010. Web. 1
Nov. 2016.

Nielsen, Linda. "Father-Daughter Relationships: Contemporary Research and Issues"

Wake Forest University, 2012. Web. 8 Nov. 2016.

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Tanner, Craig. "Avoiding Evil." Avoiding Evil. p. 3, 24 Sept. 2004. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.
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Zia, Asba, Anila Amber Malik, Dr., and Saima Masoom Ali. "Father and Daughter
Relationship and Its Impact on Daughters Self-Esteem and Academic
Achievement." Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies MCSER
Publishing, Rome-Italy 4.1 (2015): 311-16. Web. 1 Nov. 2016

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Old Works Cited
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Cockerham, Kristen, and Jennifer Willien. "How Did Your Father's Death Affect You in
the Long Run?" Personal interview. 25 Sept. 2016.

Jordan, T., Dr. "Absent Father & His Daughter's Love-Life." LoveLife Learning Center.
N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.

Reed, Elizabeth. "The Affects of an Emotionally Unavailable Dad." The Affects of an

Emotionally Unavailable Dad. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.

Riley, David. "Network Influences on Father Involvement in Childrearing." Extending

Families: The Social Network of Parents and Their Children. N.p.: Cambridge
UP, 1990. 131-53. Print.