SUBJECTIVE WELLBEING AMONG WOMEN WITH FATHER ABSENCE EXPERIENCE IN MASVINGO: DEPRESSION, ANXIETY AND RELATIONSHIP STRATEGIES

Abstract

Father absence is a developing trend globally and locally. Its impact is felt in the lives of children at a very young age and even in adulthood. This quantitative study sought to ascertain the impact of father absence on the subjective wellbeing of women who grew up in father absent homes. This was achieved by making comparisons between women who grew up without fathers against those that grew up with a resident father. The comparison was made in terms of their anxiety and depression levels; sexual partner preference and relationship strategies. An exploration of how the type and duration of father absence influences the adult life of fathers was also done. The study was guided by the father absence theory and the psychosocial acceleration theory. The ex post facto design was employed and a one stage cluster sampling strategy was used to select 392 women who participated in this study. Of the 392 participants, 168 were women who had grown up in father absent homes and the remaining 224 had grown up with a resident father. This research made use of a combined standardized close ended questionnaire that was adapted from three standardized instruments namely the Burns anxiety inventory, the Burns depression inventory; and the Mate preference questionnaire. The study revealed that the type or nature of father absence has an effect on anxiety and depression levels. This effect extended to relationship strategies. Women who came from father absent homes due to abandonment expressed more extreme forms of anxiety and ranked higher in divorce when compared to other groups of women. The duration of father absence was also found to be influential in anxiety and depression levels of father absent women. This study further established that women who grew up without fathers expressed more anxious feelings, negative thoughts and physical symptoms of anxiety than women who grew up with fathers (u = 15075.5, p<.01). It was also found that father absence influenced depression symptoms among women as depression levels of women who grew up in father absent homes significantly differed from those of women who grew up with resident fathers (u = 12605.5, p<.01). Another outcome of the study was that there were significant differences in the sexual partner preferences of women from father absent homes as compared to those of women who grew up with their fathers. A number of recommendations were proffered. Future research should explore the role of father involvement in children’s lives. This is critical as father presence alone is not important without father involvement. Moreover, this study proposes that a voluntary organisation that promotes fatherhood programs be set up to raise awareness on the importance of fathering and drive fatherhood programs. This recommendation was presented in a detailed form in a father absence coping mechanism model presented in this thesis.