ArticleHuman nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)2015
Father Absence, Childhood Stress, and Reproductive Maturation in South Africa.
Article in Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Meta-Analysis of Direct and Indirect Effects of Father Absence on Menarcheal Timing.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Pooled it
- Associations of Father and Adult Male Presence with First Pregnancy and HIV Infection: Longitudinal Evidence from Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Rural South Africa (HPTN 068).AIDS and behavior · 2021Trial
- Recalled Adverse Childhood Experiences Predict Behavioral Traits Associated With an Accelerated Life History in Cebu, Philippines.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2026Article
- Men matter: a cross-sectional exploration of the forgotten fathers of children born to adolescent mothers in South Africa.BMJ open · 2025Article
- "Journal of applied youth studies · 2025Article
- Ethnic Culture as Related to Sexual and Reproductive Behavior in the Republic of Suriname: The Pervasiveness of Culture.Archives of sexual behavior · 2021Article
- Cross-cultural evidence does not support universal acceleration of puberty in father-absent households.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Review
- Father Absence and Accelerated Reproductive Development in Non-Hispanic White Women in the United States.Demography · 2018Article
- Rural-urban variations in age at menarche, adult height, leg-length and abdominal adiposity in black South African women in transitioning South Africa.Annals of human biology · 2018Article
- The Null Relation between Father Absence and Earlier Menarche.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2017Article
- Early stress, parental motivation, and reproductive decision-making: applications of life history theory to parental behavior.Current opinion in psychology · 2017Review
- Adverse Childhood Environment: Relationship With Sexual Risk Behaviors and Marital Status in a Large American Sample.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behaviorArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The hypothesis that father absence during childhood, as well as other forms of childhood psychosocial stress, might influence the timing of sexual maturity and adult reproductive behaviors has been the focus of considerable research. However, the majority of studies that have examined this prediction have used samples of women of European descent living in industrialized, low-fertility nations. This paper tests the father-absence hypothesis using the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS), which samples young adults in Cape Town, South Africa. The sample contains multiple racial groups (blacks, coloureds [mixed race], and whites) and includes both males and females. Dependent variables include age at menarche, age at first sexual intercourse, and age at first pregnancy. Childhood stress is measured by father absence by age six (either never lived with father or lived with father some but not all years) and an index of childhood exposure to violence (measuring threatened or actual verbal or physical abuse). The hypothesis received no support for effect on age at menarche but was supported for age at first sex and first pregnancy. The model showed stronger support for coloureds and whites than blacks and had no predictive power at all for black males.
Indexed as
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Registered trials
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