Do Relationships with Fathers Influence Daughters' Relationships and Sexuality?

1. Do Relationships with Fathers Influence Daughters' Relationships and Sexuality? ABSTRACT Krystle Lange & Regan A. R. Gurung University of Wisconsin, Green Bay Do father-daughter relationships relate to daughter’s relationship expectations, romantic beliefs, and sexual behaviors? Results using responses from 227 college-aged women showed unique correlations between father-daughter relationships not paralleled by mother-daughter relationships. For example, father-daughter depth and support was significantly linked to number of men slept with, promiscuity, use of birth control, and relationship expectations. Although parent-child relationships have long been known to relate to the children’s adult behaviors, this study isolates specific areas of interaction. METHOD 227 college women reported on the quality of their father-daughter relationships, and their own sexual behavior, relationship expectations, and romantic beliefs. Respondents completed the Quality of Relationship Inventory (QRI) for the mother and father (yielding measure of depth, conflict, and social support in each dyadic relationship), the Expectation Level Index, Romantic Beliefs Scale, and other measures. Only QRI support scores are used in this presentation. A total score and 4 subscales for Romantic Beliefs was used. INTRODUCTION Many studies have shown that parental divorce affects children after they are grown and are involved in intimate relationships of their own (Amato & Keith, 1991; Burgoyne & Hames, 2002; Christensen & Brooks, 2001). The quality of the parent-child relationship can influence many aspects of the child’s development ranging from how they view relationships (e.g., attachment styles) to how they view themselves (e.g., self-esteem). A large body of research has assessed the implications of single-parent child rearing as single parents are raising a large number of Americans. Research has specifically investigated the role of the father in a child’s life years after the divorce (van Schaick & Stolberg, 2001; Clark & Kanoy, 1998; Cooney, 1994; McLanahan & Teitler, 1999). Some studies have found that there are no differences between young adults from intact or divorced families, while others have found negative attitudes amongst the young adults from divorced families. One explanation for this has been that there needs to be more variables considered than just the divorce itself (Burgoyne & Holmes, 2002). Single-parent households are important, but it is also likely that the relationships with specific parents are one of the most powerful predictors of adult development. New research suggests that the presence of a father figure can have a number of important outcomes on the development of daughters. For example, some findings suggest that father-absent girls reach menarche earlier and exhibit greater attraction to baby faces than father-present girls of the same age, which may suggest greater readiness for parenting or a greater tendency to find opportunities to acquire parenting experience (Maestripieri et al., 2004). Will this translate into increased sexual activity or the development of unique relationship expectations? Going beyond personality development, the present study focused on adult daughters’ sexual behaviors, relationship expectations, romantic beliefs, and values, and tested the importance of the presence of a father during early development, and the quality of the father daughter relationship. We predicted that women with poor relationships with their father would show higher risky sexual behaviors and have lower relationship expectation. RESULTS and DISCUSSION As predicted father-daughter relationships were significantly related to many of our key variables. The figures show relative zero-order correlations for father versus mother relationships. There were significant correlations between the number of sexual partners, perceived sexual promiscuity, and birth control use to the relationship with the father. Nine relationship expectations had a mean of 90 or above: trust, mutual respect, love, commitment, effective communication, relationship equality, agreement regarding lifestyle, willingness of partner to listen, and expected partner support of occupation. In general, women with strong relationships with their fathers had safer sexual practices and also more positive romantic beliefs than women with weaker relationships with their fathers. Multiple regression analyses showed that Father-Relationship predicted significant portions of variance (8%) in Romantic beliefs after Mother-Relationship was taken into account (7% of variance). Similar findings were seen for prediction of number of sexual partners. These results indicate that a daughter’s relationship with her father has a strong influence on her adult life and behaviors in very different ways than her relationship with her mother. A large body of literature demonstrates the influence of mother-child relationships on the adult daughter, but our findings urge a deeper focus on the paternal bond. Many of the relationships we have uncovered have often been attributed to the results of divorce, but given the majority of our sample came from intact families, it is important to compare young adults from divorced families to young adults with married parents. It may not just be divorce that is to be blamed for negative outcomes. The role of the father in the daughter’s life as she is growing up can influence her relationship expectations, romantic beliefs, and sexual behavior regardless if she is from a divorced or intact family. Given the increasing number of sexually transmitted diseases and the risks of risky sexual behavior, these results compel a stronger look at the impact paternal relationships can have on development of female relationship behaviors. Presented at the 2004 American Psychological Society’s Annual Conference. Chicago, IL. Email: langkn23@uwgb.edu for a copy