RUNNING HEAD: Father Absence and Adolescent Romantic Relationship Ideals 1 The Impact of Father Absence on Adolescent Romantic Relationship Ideals

Previous literature has addressed the impact of father absence on adolescents’ sexual development and behavior but has neglected to explore youth’s motivations and attitudes towards romantic relationships. This study examined the association between the duration of father absence and adolescents’ romantic relationship ideals of commitment, sex, and pregnancy within a romantic relationship. It further focused on any differences between genders. Findings based on data from Wave I of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N=18,849) showed that adolescents whose fathers were always absent had different romantic relationship ideals than those whose fathers were never absent: they desired a lower level of commitment to their partner and wanted to engage in riskier behaviors, such as sex and pregnancy, outside a committed relationship. Moreover, boys were more impacted by father absence than girls with regards to their desires for commitment and sexual activity, while girls wanted less commitment within a relationship overall than boys. These findings suggest that earlier interventions with youth, before adolescents initiate risky sexual behaviors, and interventions that target romantic ideals rather than sexual behavior may more successfully prevent risky sexual behavior. Father Absence and Adolescent Romantic Relationship Ideals 3 Adolescent Romantic Ideals Past research examining the impact of father absence on adolescent outcomes has linked it to a range of negative sexual outcomes, such as earlier pubertal timing, earlier sexual initiation, unsafe sexual behavior, and teenage pregnancy (Ellis & Tither, 2009; Ellis & Garber, 2000). These findings suggest that father absence alters or shapes children’s sexual development in a way that may facilitate the development of weak and unstable romantic relationships and sexual behavior within such relationships. In effect, father absence may raise an adolescent’s probability of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, enduring a teenage pregnancy or having a child out of wedlock (Hofferth & Hayes, 1987; O’Donnell, O’Donnell, & Stueve, 2001). In this way, instability within the family in one generation could cause instability in the next, thus perpetuating the cycle. More immediately, the events associated with father absence may have contributed to the recent increase in teenage pregnancy for the first time since 1991 (Guttmacher, 2010) and the rise of sexually active adolescents in general (Mendle et al., 2009). Although these links suggest father absence may alter adolescents’ sexual development, the vast majority of literature on these phenomena has examined only broad indicators of sexual development such as sexual behavior and pregnancy. Few studies have examined impacts on romantic ideals, such as willingness to have sex outside committed relationships and pregnancy intention, which may prove to be essential motivating factors underlying sexual behavior itself. Adolescents’ romantic ideals could thus illuminate mechanisms through which father absence may impact sexual development. Furthermore, a major gap exists in the examination of any differences between the ideals of girls and boys regarding romantic relationships. If father absence impacts the sexual development of boys and girls differently, and this difference was identified, more targeted and thus more potentially effective interventions with teenagers could Father Absence and Adolescent Romantic Relationship Ideals 4 be designed. Overall, a thorough investigation of adolescents’ ideals and attitudes about commitment, love, sexual activity, and pregnancy could inform interventions that target youth before they the initiate risky sexual behavior.