Father absence and cognitive performance in a large sample of six- to eleven-year-old children

The effects of father absence on educational achievement and intellectual development of 6-11-year-old children were investigated by employing a nationally representative sample of 5,493 father-present and 616 father-absent children from the Health Examination Survey of the National Center for Health Statistics. Scores on the WISC and the WRAT were significantly depressed for father-absent white children. Father-absent black children evidenced a decreased test performance only on measures of achievement. All decrements were small and accounted for approximately 1% of the variance. Following statistical control for SES, we associated no decrements with the father's absence/presence, and in some instances, small but significant increments were found to be associated with children from fatherless families. The role of SES in father absence is discussed, and the request for a paradigmatic shift in research in the area of father absence is reiterated.