Study Shows Fathers Affect Daughters' Sex Lives

Brought to you by National PTA®.

Involved dads have more than just a positive influence on their daughters' social lives. Research shows that a father's presence in the home can even affect when girls enter puberty.

The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and conducted by Vanderbilt, Auburn, and Indiana universities, found that:

• Girls who lived with their biological fathers throughout their lives, and whose fathers spent more time caring for them during the their first five years of life, had later onset of puberty by the seventh grade.
• In contrast, daughters from homes where fathers were either absent or dysfunctional experienced puberty relatively early.
• Other research shows it is likely for girls with highly involved, present-in-the-home fathers to begin sex and dating at a later age.

The study of 173 girls from Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, and Bloomington, Indiana, began when daughters were registering for kindergarten in the summers of 1987 and 1988 and concluded when the girls reached seventh grade.

Here's lasting proof of the difference great dads make in the lives of their daughters.

Brought to you by National PTA, from Our Children, National PTA's Magazine.

More on: Raising Your Teenage Daughter