Growing up without a father could permanently alter the structure of the brain and produce children who are more aggressive and angry, scientists have warned.
Adolescent boys look to their father figures to tell them if they are good enough to be men, writes psychologist Frank Pittman, in an article for Psychology Today entitled “Fathers and Sons.” Without paternal approval, adolescent boys experience emotional pain, which can lead to attempts to prove themselves. These include intense competition with other boys, engaging in risky behaviors, and criminal “tough guy” behavior intended to scare the world into seeing them as men. Psychologist Marie Hartwell-Walker reinforces this in her PsychCentral.com article “Daddies Do Make a Difference.”
Difficulties Bonding
Men who grow up without a father figure also have more problems bonding with their own children, writes Hartwell-Walker. Having never experienced a father-son bond, they are unsure of how to develop that relationship with their own children. Men who had absent fathers are more likely to be absent fathers themselves. These men were also never taught how to have healthy relationships with women and tend to have higher break-up and divorce rates than men who grow up with a father’s influence.
