Information & Facts

Many people believe that being a daddyless daughter is limited to just not knowing who your father is. In reality, being a daddyless daughter takes on more than one form. DDCMD has broken down the ways a person can be fatherless

Types of Daddyless Daughters

Shadow Father - A shadow father is a father in his daughter's life but not in other aspects. This father is physically there, but the father-daughter relationship may lack an emotional, mental, or spiritual connection. This daddyless daughter is often overlooked because her father is physically in her life and may still be in a relationship with her mother, but the father-daughter relationship is nonexistent.

Angel Father - An angel father is a father who transitioned on and is no longer physically on earth. At some point in a woman's life, she will experience having an angel father. Having an angel father can take place at any time in life and leave daddyless daughters with unanswered questions.

Revolving Door Father - A revolving door father is a father who lacks consistency. This father tends to come in and out of his daughter's life, either due to circumstance or choice. This daddyless daughter is often taken on an emotional rollercoaster because the father-daughter relationship is not healthy or consistent.

Misplaced Father - A misplaced father is a father who does not exist in his daughter's life. This father may have decided he did not want to be actively involved with his child and refuse to show up in any form. This father can also be misplaced due to circumstances such as unhealthy coparenting.The alternative to this is a young lady who does not know who her father is at all.

The Facts:

Currently in the United States 25% of American children have absent fathers

60% African- American
40% Hispanic
24% White

The impact of fatherlessness consist of but is not limited to:

Diminished self-concept and compromised physical and emotional security: Children consistently report feeling abandoned when their fathers are not involved in their lives, struggling with their emotions.
Behavioral problems: Fatherless children have more difficulties with social adjustment and are more likely to report problems with friendships and manifest behavior problems; many develop a swaggering, intimidating persona to disguise their underlying fears, resentments, anxieties, and unhappiness.
Truancy and low academic performance: 71% of high school dropouts are fatherless; fatherless children have more trouble academically, scoring poorly on tests of reading, mathematics, and thinking skills; children from father-absent homes are more likely to play truant from school, more likely to be excluded from school, more likely to leave school at age 16, and less likely to attain academic and professional qualifications in adulthood.
Delinquency and youth crime, including violent crime: 85% of youth in prison have an absent father; fatherless children are more likely to offend and go to jail as adults.
Promiscuity and teen pregnancy: Fatherless children are more likely to experience problems with sexual health, including a greater likelihood of having intercourse before the age of 16, foregoing contraception during first intercourse, becoming teenage parents, and contracting sexually transmitted infection; many girls manifest an object hunger for males, and in experiencing the emotional loss of their fathers egocentrically as a rejection of them, may become susceptible to exploitation by adult men.
Drug and alcohol abuse: Fatherless children are more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, and abuse drugs in childhood and adulthood.
Homelessness: 90% of runaway children have an absent father.
Exploitation and abuse: Fatherless children are at greater risk of suffering physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, being five times more likely to have experienced physical abuse and emotional maltreatment, with a one hundred times higher risk of fatal abuse; a recent study reported that preschoolers not living with both of their biological parents are 40 times more likely to be sexually abused.
Physical health problems: Fatherless children report significantly more psychosomatic health symptoms and illnesses such as acute and chronic pain, asthma, headaches, and stomach aches.
Mental health disorders: Father-absent children are consistently overrepresented on a wide range of mental health problems, particularly anxiety, depression, and suicide.
Life chances: As adults, fatherless children are more likely to experience unemployment, have low incomes, remain on social assistance, and experience homelessness.
Future relationships: Father-absent children tend to enter partnerships earlier, are more likely to divorce or dissolve their cohabiting unions, and are more likely to have children outside marriage or any partnership.
Mortality: Fatherless children are more likely to die as children and live an average of four years less over the lifespan