ArticleAnnual review of sociology2013
The Causal Effects of Father Absence.
Article in Annual review of sociology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 118 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
118 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 578 citations in OpenAlex.
- Fatherhood Matters: An Integrative Review of Fatherhood Intervention Research.The Journal of school nursing : the official publication of the National Association of School Nurses · 2020Pooled it
- A culturally grounded prenatal coparenting intervention: Results of a randomized controlled trial with unmarried Black parents.Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43) · 2022Trial
- A tripartite model for recruiting African-Americans into fatherhood intervention research.Public health nursing (Boston, Mass.) · 2018Trial
- Parental alienation and its impact on self-esteem and well-being - a meta-Ethnography.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2026Review
- Concealed Identities and Absent Fathers: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Lived Experiences of Two Daughters of Catholic Priests in Peru.Journal of religion and health · 2026Article
- Effects of a Counselor-Facilitated Rite of Passage Group on Behavioral Outcomes in At-Risk Adolescent Boys: Evidence From the Quest Project®.Journal of adolescence · 2026Article
- Association of parental death and separation with child mortality in India.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Physical Activities Promote Resilience of Children in Single-Mother Families: Results from A-CHILD Study.Maternal and child health journal · 2026Article
- Paternal Depression in the Child's First Year of Life and Subsequent Father-Child Co-Residence.Academic pediatrics · 2026Article
- Parent-to-child intergenerational influence of perceived alienation towards parents: mediation of children's life-events, and moderation of children's gender and left-behind status.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Mental health among youth in a conflict area: a cross-sectional study of the effects of parental absence, social media, family support and religious practice on psychiatric symptoms in Thailand's southernmost provinces.Conflict and health · 2026Article
- Do purpose in life and self-directedness mediate the effects of child abuse on anxiety and depression symptoms 18 years later?Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Moving from "damage-centered" research to "family-centered" participatory action research for systems change: a call to action for developmental and family scientists.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Family Structure and Cognitive Effort: Examining the Influence of Living with a Single Parent on Children's Task Engagement.Kolner Zeitschrift fur Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie · 2026Article
- Family structure and family satisfaction as factors of adolescents' autonomous motivation, cheating, and academic achievement.PloS one · 2026Article
- The role of father neglect and abuse in the romantic relationship and mate choice experiences of young women: a phenomenological analysis.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Single-Parent Births in California: A Population-Based Examination of the Risk of Child Protective Services Involvement.Maternal and child health journal · 2025Article
- Drivers and effects of fish-for-sex related single parenthood in a fishing coastal community in Ghana.PloS one · 2025Article
- Little evidence that nonmonogamous family structures are detrimental to children's well-being in Mpimbwe, Tanzania.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Influence of Gender, Parental Control, Academic Performance and Physical Activity Level on the Characteristics of Video Game Use and Associated Psychosocial Problems in Adolescents.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
58 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The literature on father absence is frequently criticized for its use of cross-sectional data and methods that fail to take account of possible omitted variable bias and reverse causality. We review studies that have responded to this critique by employing a variety of innovative research designs to identify the causal effect of father absence, including studies using lagged dependent variable models, growth curve models, individual fixed effects models, sibling fixed effects models, natural experiments, and propensity score matching models. Our assessment is that studies using more rigorous designs continue to find negative effects of father absence on offspring well-being, although the magnitude of these effects is smaller than what is found using traditional cross-sectional designs. The evidence is strongest and most consistent for outcomes such as high school graduation, children's social-emotional adjustment, and adult mental health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.