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Evolution, Mind and Behaviour
DOI: 10.1556/2050.2015.0002
© 2015 The Author(s)
DOES FATHER ABANDONMENT HAVE
CONSEQUENCES FOR THE REPRODUCTIVE
STRATEGIES OF GIRLS?
A STUDY IN CURAÇAO
ODETTE JANICE VAN BRUMMEN–GIRIGORI1,∗ AND ABRAHAM P. BUUNK2
1Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Curaçao, dr. Moises da Costa Gomez
2Department of Psychology, University of Groningen & The Royal Netherlands Academy of
Sciences, The Netherlands & Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Curaçao,
dr Moises da Costa Gomez
Abstract. The present research examined the consequences of father abandonment for the repro-
ductive strategies of girls from the Caribbean island of Curaçao. The sample consisted of 189
girls with an average age of 19.11 (SD = 2.97). Respondents were categorized in three groups,
namely: ‘early father absence’ (abandoned between 0–5 years of age), ‘late father absence’ (aban-
doned between 6–13 years of age) and ‘father presence’ (father present during childhood). The re-
sults showed that compared to ‘late father absence’ girls and ‘father presence’ girls, ‘early father
absence’ girls initiated sexual intercourse at a significant younger age. Moreover, they were less
interested in getting married and in having grandchildren. These differences could not be ex-
plained by differences in educational level of the participants or occupational level of the father
and the mother. There were no significant differences between the three groups in the age of men-
arche, the total number of sexual partners and the desire to have children. From an evolutionary
life history perspective, we discuss possible explanations for, and implications of, these findings.
Keywords: father absence, reproductive behavior, menarche, marriage, Curaçao
INTRODUCTION
In Curaçao, an island in the Southern Caribbean, the rate of teenage pregnancy
is relatively high. In 2010, 7.3% of women under the age of 20 became pregnant
(Samenwerkende Fondsen, Aruba en Nederlandse Antillen, 2010). This figure is
comparable to other Caribbean countries such as Aruba and Bonaire, but con-
siderably higher than in countries such as the Netherlands, where the rate of
teenage pregnancies is 0.34% (Central Bureau of Statistics the Netherlands,
2012) and the United States, where the rate is 3.4% (Hamilton & Ventura,
2012). According to a recent study, only 36.2% of the women in Curaçao who
became pregnant in their teenage years had used contraceptives during their first
∗Corresponding author: O.J. VAN BRUMMEN–GIRIGORI, Phone: Phone: 005999-5162926,
E-mail: o.girigori@uoc.cw
ODETTE JANICE VAN BRUMMEN–GIRIGORI AND ABRAHAM P. BUUNK
EMB (2015)
sexual experience (Samenwerkende Fondsen, Aruba en Nederlandse Antillen,
2010). Not surprisingly, teenage pregnancy in Curaçao is one of the major rea-
sons why girls drop out of school and therefore fail to complete secondary
school. In addition, a great majority of single mothers accept that the fathers
play a marginal role in the upbringing of their children. Many single mothers
even report that they are proud of being able to raise their children alone (Minis-
terie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijkrelaties, 2010). Extended families
are very common and generally accepted, usually consisting of grandmothers,
aunts and other relatives who provide help raising the children, which compen-
sates for the father absence. Nevertheless, approximately 50% of the female
headed households live in poverty compared to two-earner households and are
often not able to pay for the educational development of their children due to a
lack of a second earner (Central Bureau of Statistics Curacao, 2011).
The marginal role of father and the acceptance of father absence in Cura-
çao is supposed to have its origins in part in the period of slavery (Marcha &
Verweel, 2005). The first slaves arrived on the island in 1665 because Curaçao
functioned as an important slave trade market for many years, until slavery was
abolished in 1863. The laws and regulations during slavery had an enormous in-
fluence on the relationship between the male slave and the female slave and
their children. Since the male slave was not considered a legal person, it was not
possible for him to close a civil marriage (Allen, 2009). Because of this, the
male slave was not allowed to function as a father for his children and the re-
sponsibility of raising his children was completely left to the female slave. The
slave family therefore usually consisted of a female slave and her children (Bar-
row, 1996). Male slaves had no obligation to their children, because the planta-
tion-owners were primarily responsible for the care of the female slave and her
children. According to Beckles (1989) there was ‘paternal alienation’ during
slavery, due to the father absence in the life of the slave’s children. In the past
decades, the family structure has shifted from only female headed households to
more two-earner households in comparison to the slavery period. Currently,
both parents are able to live closer to their maternal kin then they could do dur-
ing slavery. In addition, the father has a choice to invest in his family because
this is not prohibited anymore. However, still today approximately 40% of the
families consist of female-headed households (CBS, 2011), which suggests that
in many families the father is still having a marginal role in the upbringing of
his children.
The effects of father absence on reproductive strategies
The present research examined the effects of paternal absence and abandonment
on the reproductive strategies of girls in Curaçao. Only a few studies on this is-
FATHER ABANDONMENT AND REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES
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sue have been conducted in less developed countries and in non-western socie-
ties (e.g., Sheppard, Snopkowski & Sear, 2014). Many studies in Western socie-
ties have demonstrated the effects of father absence not only on the mortality
and health (e.g., Sear & Coall, 2011; Sear & Mace, 2008; Winking, et al.,
2009), but also on the reproductive behavior of children (e.g., Alvergne, Faurie
& Raymond, 2008; Bogaert, 2008; Mendle et al., 2009; Nettle, Coal & Dickens,
2010). According to life history theory, because of limited resources, individu-
als have in general to make trade-offs between mating efforts and parenting ef-
forts in order to reproduce (e.g., Chisholm, 1993; Figueredo et al., 2006). These
trade-offs can be arranged on a continuum that is now commonly referred to as
the fast–slow continuum of life history strategy. In general, a fast life history
strategy is considered to be the optimal reproductive strategy when the envi-
ronmental conditions are adverse or unstable (e.g., Chisholm, 1993). According
to Ellis (2004) low quality environments, including low paternal investment and
father absence, will trigger an early menarche because girls in such environ-
ments assume they may have a relatively short life expectancy. Characteristic of
a fast life history strategy is not only an early menarche, but also having many
sexual partners, often without emotional attachment; getting one’s first child at
an early age; and having more offspring, often from different men (e.g., Fi-
gueredo et al., 2006, Kaplan & Gangestad, 2005). There is considerable evi-
dence that girls who were abandoned by their father consider marriage as unsta-
ble and men as unreliable investors compared to girls who grew up with their
father (e.g., Draper & Harpending, 1982; Ellis & Essex, 2007; Ellis et al.,
2003). Hence, given these conditions it may be more advantageous for girls who
were abandoned by their father to reproduce on an early age instead of delaying
reproduction and waiting for the perfect, highly investing partner while this ex-
pectation is unlikely to happen.
Conversely, a slow life history strategy is more common when environ-
mental conditions are favorable and stable and when one is growing up in a sta-
ble home in which a father is present (e.g., Ellis, 2004; Kaplan & Gangestad,
2005). Under such conditions, a long-term reproductive strategy will be more
successful (e.g., Figueredo et al., 2005; Figueredo et al., 2006; Kaplan & Gang-
estad, 2005). As individuals will assume they have a longer life-expectancy,
they will mature later, will postpone sexual activities, will have fewer offspring,
will display greater investment in this offspring, and search for a stable long-
term relationship (e.g., Belsky, Steinberg & Draper, 1991; Bjorklund &
Schakelford, 1999; Ellis, 2004; Pesonen et al., 2008; Quinlan & Flinn, 2003;
Tither & Ellis, 2008). Given the previous reasoning, in the present research in
Curaçao we expected that, overall, girls whose father was absent during their
childhood will have a relatively early menarche, will start their sexual activities
relatively early, will be more interested in having children, will be less inter-
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EMB (2015)
ested in marrying and will have a reduced long-term perspective aimed at hav-
ing grandchildren.
Timing of father absence
Father absence or abandonment by the father will have a stronger effect on the
reproductive strategies of children, the younger age of the child since the father
was absent. Particularly the first five to seven years of life will shape an indi-
vidual’s attitudes towards pair-bonding and child rearing (e.g., Belsky et al.,
1991). Draper and Harpending (1982) argued that especially children growing
up without a father since this early stage in their life will expect that paternal
investment will not be forthcoming and that romantic relationships will not en-
dure. However, father absence may have different types of effects at different
childhood stages. For instance, Alvergne et al. (2008) found in their study con-
ducted in France that abandonment by the father before the age of 5 was associ-
ated with an early age of menarche, but abandonment by the father during ado-
lescence was associated with heightened sexual activity. Several studies have
shown that children whose father was present during the sensitive childhood pe-
riod of 5–7 years compared to children whose father was absent during this pe-
riod tend to show an earlier age of first sexual intercourse and to have signifi-
cantly higher rates of teenage pregnancy (e.g., Ellis et al., 2003; Quinlan, 2003;
Wight, Williamson & Henderson, 2006). In a similar vein, Belsky et al. (1991)
showed that girls exposed to father absence during the first 7 years of life,
showed an early onset of puberty and precocious sexuality and had unstable re-
lationships as adults. In studies conducted in the US and New Zealand, Ellis et
al. (2003) found that girls whose father was absent before the age of 5 showed
the highest rates of early sexual intercourse and of teenage pregnancies, fol-
lowed by girls whose father left after the age of 5, with the lowest rate occurring
among the girls who grew up with their father. In fact, the US sample of teenage
pregnancies was approximately 5 times, and in New Zealand 3 times higher
among early father absence girls than among father presence girls.
In sum, given the above information we assumed that father abandonment
or absence, especially during the first years of one’s life compared to late father
abandonment or father presence would affect the reproductive strategies of
girls. We assumed that early father abandonment would be associated with a
fast life history strategy and that therefore early father abandonment would be
associated with several fast life history traits including (1) an earlier age of their
first menarche; (2) an earlier age of their first sexual intercourse; (3) a higher
number of sexual partners; (4) a stronger desire to have children; but (5) a
weaker desire to marry; and (6) a weaker desire to have grandchildren.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS
Participants
The sample consisted of 189 girls with an average age of 19.11 (SD = 2.97),
who were born in Curaçao, and who were living on Curaçao during the period
of the study. On the island of Curacao there are several nationalities with their
own specific cultural backgrounds and practices that differ from that of the
population of Curacao. Therefore, girls who were born in other countries such
as Surinam, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Colombia or the Netherlands
were excluded from the study to prevent the confounding effect of cultural dif-
ferences, and to have an unambiguous population to which the results may be
generalized. Some participants did not answer all questions and for this reason
the number of participants may vary across analyses.
Materials
The participants completed a pen and paper questionnaire consisting of multiple
questions, which took approximately 10 minutes. The questionnaire included a
demographics section, in which questions were asked such as age, place of
birth, educational level and the presence of a biological father. Participants were
asked to report their age of menarche, their age at first sexual (penile-vaginal
penetrative) intercourse, and their lifetime number of sexual partners. Next, par-
ticipants were asked to indicate on a dimension from 1 (not applicable) to 7
(completely applicable) how important they found it to 1) have children; 2) have
grandchildren; and 3) marry.
To determine the onset of father absence, the participants were asked to
indicate if they were raised with or without a father. Participants were classified
as experiencing early father absence if they were either born into a single
mother family or born into an intact two-parent family, but subsequently experi-
enced father absence at or before the age of 5. We chose this cut-off to allow
comparison with studies done in the past, which have also defined ‘early father
absence’ as occurring in the first 5 years (Bereczkei & Csanaky, 1996; Blain &
Barkow, 1988; Ellis et al., 2003; Hetherington, 1972). Late father absence was
defined as growing up without the biological father at home beginning during
ages 6 through 13. We chose the age of 13 as the next cut-off in order to allow
comparison with the study done by Ellis et al. (2003). In their study they chose
this age as cut-off because the girls who became pregnant were older than 13.
Father presence was defined for girls who were born with their biological father
at home, and who co-resided with him until age 13 or later. Girls who grew up
with a stepfather were also classified as early father absence or late father ab-
ODETTE JANICE VAN BRUMMEN–GIRIGORI AND ABRAHAM P. BUUNK
EMB (2015)
sence on the basis of the age of the abandonment by the biological father. Thus,
the sample was split in three groups namely ‘early father absence girls’ (n = 54),
‘late father absence girls’ (n = 38) and ‘father presence girls’ (n = 97). A total of
21 participants who were categorized as early father absence girls and 14 par-
ticipants who were categorized as late father absence girls indicated to have
grown up with a stepfather. Finally, a total of 185 participants, 97.88% of the
final sample, indicated that they were enrolled in an educational course at the
time of the study. As indicated in Table 1, an ANOVA showed that the three
groups did not differ significantly in age F (2, 183) = .54, p = .57. Chi-square
analyses showed no significant differences between the three groups in the
BMI-index, F (2, 124) = 1.29, p = .28, educational level,
χ
2 (4, N = 183) = 1.17,
p = .88), occupational level of the father,
χ
2 (4, N = 143) = 6.50, p = .17), and
occupational level of the mother,
χ
2 (4, N = 150) = 1.39, p = .85).
Table 1. Descriptive statistics by father status
Timing of onset of father absence
M (SD) Early father Late father Father
Absence Absence Presence
1. Age 19.41 (3.02) 18.97 (3.20) 19.16 (3.26)
2. BMI 24.62 (5.23) 22.99 (2.87) 23.57 (4.10)
3. Educational level of the participants:
Low 28.3% 30.6% 30.9%
Middle 49.1% 41.6% 40.4%
High 22.6% 27.8% 28.7%
Total 100% 100% 100%
4. Occupational level of the mother:
Low 32.4% 26.7% 13.2%
Middle 51.4% 53.3% 67.1%
High 16.2% 20.0% 19.7%
Total 100% 100% 100%
5. Occupational level of the father
Low 22.9% 21.2% 18.8%
Middle 64.6% 63.6% 60.9%
High 12.5% 15.2% 20.3%
Total 100% 100% 100%
Procedure
This study was approved by the Ethical Committee for Social Sciences at the
University of Curacao dr. Moises da Costa Gomez. The participants at this
study were recruited in places where young people commonly go to relax after
their school day, such as the Brion Plein and fast food restaurants in Willem-
stad, the capital of Curaçao. We also took into consideration that the partici-
FATHER ABANDONMENT AND REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES
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pants should have enough time to answer the questions seriously when they
were relaxing. After filling out the questionnaire, participants were offered a
biscuit as a sign of gratitude for their cooperation. The questionnaires were of-
fered in both Dutch and Papiamentu. The questionnaire was translated from
Dutch in Papiamentu by a professional translator of the University of Curacao.
Consequently, the translation was checked by two members of the research
team who were fluent in both Dutch and Papiamentu. Papiamentu is the native
language of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao and is a Creole language in part de-
rived from the African languages with considerable influence of Portuguese and
Spanish, as well as some influence of Amerindian, English, French and Dutch.
Papiamentu is the most spoken language on Curaçao followed by Dutch, Span-
ish and English.
RESULTS
Age of first menarche
An ANOVA with the three groups of father presence versus absence as inde-
pendent variable showed that the mean age of first menarche did not differ
among the three groups, F (2, 136) = .65, p = .52 (early father absence girls,
M = 11.68, SD = 1.86; late father absence girls, M = 11.45, SD = 1.32; father
presence girls, M = 11.84, SD = 1.45).
Age of first sexual intercourse
An ANOVA showed an overall significant difference between the three groups
in the age of first sexual intercourse, F (2, 111) = 3.48, p= .03 (early father ab-
sence girls, M = 15.38, SD = 1.79; late father absence girls, M = 16.24,
Figure 1. Age of first sexual intercourse
ODETTE JANICE VAN BRUMMEN–GIRIGORI AND ABRAHAM P. BUUNK
EMB (2015)
SD = 1.55; father presence girls, M = 16.39, SD = 1.98). However, the post- hoc
LSD-test showed that only the difference between ‘early father absence’ girls
and ‘father presence’ girls was significant, p = .01. As Figure 1 illustrates, the
age of first sexual intercourse was lower among ‘early father absence’ girls than
among ‘father presence’ girls. Furthermore the post-hoc LSD-test showed that
‘late father absence’girls and ‘father presence’ girls differed marginally from
each other, p = .09.
Number of sexual partners
An ANOVA showed no significant differences in the overall number of sexual
partners between the three groups, F (2, 144) = .38, p = .66 (early father ab-
sence girls, M = 1.21, SD = 1.15; late father absence girls, M = 1.44, SD = 1.33;
father presence girls, M = 1.39, SD = 1.32).
Number of sexual partners during the past year
We did not find an overall significant difference between the three groups con-
cerning the number of sexual partners during the past year, F (2, 152) = 2.18,
p = .12 (early father absence girls, M = .89, SD = .84; late father absence girls,
M = 1.13, SD = 1.00; father presence girls, M = .77, SD = .67). However, the
post-hoc LSD-test showed that there was a significant difference in the number
of sexual partners during the past year between ‘late father absence’ girls and
‘father presence’ girls, p = .04. As illustrated in Figure 2, the ‘late father ab-
sence’ girls had more sexual partners during the past year than the ‘father pres-
ence’ girls. Furthermore the post-hoc LSD-tests showed no significant differ-
ence between ‘early father absence’ girls and ‘father presence’ girls, p = .41,
neither between ‘early father absence’ girls and ‘late father absence’ girls,
p = .21.
Figure 2. Number of sexual partners during the past year
FATHER ABANDONMENT AND REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES
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Desire to have children
An ANOVA showed no overall significant difference between the three groups
in the desire to have children, F (2, 189) = 1.03, p = .36 (early father absence
girls, M = 4.41, SD = 1.92; late father absence girls, M = 4.95, SD = 1.99; father
presence girls, M = 4.76, SD = 1.81).
Desire to marry
An ANOVA showed an overall significant difference between the groups in the
desire to marry, F (2, 189) = 3.83, p = .02 (early father absence girls, M = 4.28,
SD = 1.82; late father absence girls, M = 4.34, SD = 2.01; father presence girls,
M = 5.04, SD = 1.76). The post-hoc LSD-tests showed that ‘father presence’
girls had a significantly stronger desire to marry than the group of the ‘early fa-
ther absence’ girls, p = .02 and the group of the ‘late father absence’ girls,
p = .05 (see Figure 3), whereas the difference between ‘early father absence’
girls and ‘late father absence’ girls was not significant, p = .87.
Figure 3. Desire to marry
Desire to have grandchildren
An ANOVA showed an overall significant difference between the three groups
in the desire to have grandchildren, F (2, 188) = 5.84, p = .00 (early father ab-
sence girls, M = 3.70, SD = 1.75; late father absence girls, M = 4.95, SD = 2.01;
father presence girls, M = 4.53, SD = 1.79). More specifically, the post-hoc
LSD-test showed that ‘early father absence’ girls differed significantly from
ODETTE JANICE VAN BRUMMEN–GIRIGORI AND ABRAHAM P. BUUNK
EMB (2015)
‘late father absence’ girls, p = .00 and from ‘father presence’ girls, p = .01. In
other words, both ‘father presence’ girls and ‘late father absence’ girls had a
significantly stronger desire to have grandchildren than ‘early father absence’
girls (see also Figure 4), whereas the difference between ‘late father absence’
girls and ‘father presence’ girls was not significant, p = .23.
Figure 4. Desire to have grandchildren
Role of the stepfather
Given evidence that exposure to a stepfather may also influence reproductive
scheduling (e.g., Ellis & Garber, 2000; Mendle et al., 2006; Mendle et al.,
2009), we examined possible differences between father abandoned girls ex-
posed to a stepfather and father abandoned girls not exposed to a stepfather. We
executed a series of ANOVA’s with these two groups as the independent vari-
able and the various life history traits as dependent variables. These analyses
showed that only the age of first sexual intercourse was significantly different
between father abandoned girls not exposed to a stepfather and father aban-
doned girls exposed to a stepfather, F (1, 58) = 4.51, p = .04 (father abandoned
girls without stepfather, M = 15.29, SD = 1.75; father abandoned girls exposed
to a stepfather, M = 16.25, SD = 1.60). That is, the age of first sexual inter-
course was lower among father abandoned girls who were not exposed to a
stepfather than among father abandoned girls who were exposed to a stepfather.
Our results showed no further significant differences between these two groups
regarding the age of first menarche, number of sexual partners, number of sex-
ual partners during the past year, desire to have children, desire to marry, nei-
ther desire to have grandchildren, p > .05.
FATHER ABANDONMENT AND REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES
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Potentially confounding variables
We examined whether potentially confounding variables, including the educa-
tional level of the participants, and the occupational level of their parents might
be responsible for the observed effects of father absence versus father presence.
For each of the seven life history traits separately we conducted three
ANOVA’s, with father absence versus father presence as factor, and educational
level of the participants, occupational level of the father, and occupational level
of the mother, respectively as covariates. These analyses demonstrated that
all effects of father absence versus father presence stayed virtually the same,
p > .05. In other words, the educational level of the girls, and occupational level
of the parents did not influence our results. Given evidence that childhood obe-
sity may influence the mean age at first menarche (e.g., Al-Awadhi et al, 2013),
we also controlled if BMI did influence our result regarding the age of first
menarche. Therefore, we entered age of menarche as dependent variable, father
absence versus presence as fixed factor and the BMI of the participants as co-
variate. However, the analysis showed no effect of BMI, p = .65, and there still
was no effect of father absence versus presence, p = .43.
DISCUSSION
The present results demonstrated in a Caribbean sample from Curaçao that
growing up without a father may have important consequences for the reproduc-
tive strategy of girls. We measured different life history traits and the results
were quite different for the various reproductive scheduling measures. In a num-
ber of respects, our findings were in line with our expectations based on life his-
tory theory. That is, girls who were abandoned by their father before the age of
five, initiated sexual intercourse at a significantly younger age than girls who
were abandoned by their father between the age of six and thirteen and girls
who grew up with their father. These findings are in line with several other
studies that have shown that children who were abandoned by their father had
their first sexual intercourse at an earlier age than children who grew up with
their father (Ellis et al., 2003; Quinlan, 2003; Wight et al., 2006). Our findings
thus provide evidence from Curaçao that girls who grew up without a father
may follow a fast life history strategy and are therefore more inclined to accel-
erate their reproductive strategies by starting with sexual intercourse at an ear-
lier age than girls who grew up with a father. An alternative explanation for our
findings may be the daughter guarding hypothesis, because according to that
hypothesis we would find similar results for father abandoned girls exposed to a
stepfather and father present girls, assuming that their fathers or stepfathers are
ODETTE JANICE VAN BRUMMEN–GIRIGORI AND ABRAHAM P. BUUNK
EMB (2015)
intensively involved in monitoring the sexual behavior of their daughters (e.g.,
Perilloux, Fleischman & Buss, 2008, see also Flinn, 1988). Our results indicate
indeed that father abandoned girls who were not exposed to a stepfather showed
an earlier age of sexual intercourse than father abandoned girls exposed to a
stepfather. Thus, it seems that the stepfather may compensate in this respect for
the absence of the biological father by monitoring the sexual behavior of their
stepdaughters.
We did not find an overall significant effect of father absence or presence
on the total number of sexual partners. This finding suggests that it is simply the
longer duration of sexual activity that leads to more sexual partners. Of course,
this is a quite preliminary finding that would need replication in future research.
Furthermore we found evidence that girls who were abandoned by their father
between the age of six and thirteen seem to have changed their reproductive be-
havior in the past year by engaging in significantly more sexual activities than
the girls who grew up with their father. Thus, our results suggest that girls who
were abandoned by their father between the age of six and thirteen is a special
group of which the sexual behavior is notably different than that of the other
two groups (see also Alvergne et al., 2008). In future research it would seem
important to also assess this shift.
Our findings also showed that there were meaningful differences in the de-
sire to get married between girls who grew up with a father (at whatever age)
and girls who were abandoned by their father. That is, girls who grew up with a
father had a stronger desire to marry than girls who were abandoned by their fa-
ther. This finding is in line with several studies that have shown that girls who
were abandoned by their father are less optimistic about their marriages being
stable and about men being reliable investors (e.g., Draper & Harpending, 1982;
Ellis & Essex, 2007; Ellis et al., 2003). A possible explanation may be that girls
who were abandoned by their father have not experienced a marriage as a model
and therefore have a lower desire to get married than girls who grew up with
their father.
Although we did not find any significant differences between girls who
grew up with or without a father in their desire to have children, we found, as
predicted, significant differences in the desire to have grandchildren. Girls who
were abandoned by their father before the age of five had a significantly weaker
desire to have grandchildren than girls who were abandoned by their father be-
tween the age of six and thirteen and girls who grew up entirely with a father.
Although these findings were in line with our expectations, they may seem in
contrast with the work of Nettle (2010) that suggests that girls who grew up
without a father would consider childbearing at an earlier age by taking into
consideration to be in good health until their oldest grandchild is five year of
age. However, we still consider our findings in line with life history theory as a
FATHER ABANDONMENT AND REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES
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fast life history strategy implies a lack of a long term perspective. That is, those
girls who were abandoned by their father before the age of five may not be cer-
tain to be around for the birth of grandchildren, because they expect a high mor-
tality in their environment.
In contrast to the effect of growing up without a father on early menarche
established in previous research (Bogaert, 2005; Doughty & Rodgers, 2000;
Ellis & Garber, 2000; Ellis, Mc-Fadyen-Ketchum, Dodge, Pettit & Bates, 1999;
Hoier, 2003), we did not find a difference in the age of the first menarche be-
tween girls who grew up without a father and girls who grew up with a father.
Nevertheless, this finding is in line with a study conducted in Malaysia, where
an effect of father absence on the age of menarche was neither found (Sheppard
et al., 2014). Our finding may be attributed to the fact that obesity among young
women in Curacao is quite common. As many studies have shown that over-
weight may accelerate the maturation process, the effect of obesity may have
overridden any effect of father absence (e.g., Al-Awadhi et al, 2013). However,
we did not find that BMI was related to the age of menarche. Of course, we did
not assess the BMI-index during the maturation period, but BMI is known to be
quite stable, especially over a low number of years. Based on previous studies
(e.g., Ellis & Garber, 2000; Mendle, 2006; Mendle et al., 2009) we assumed that
being exposed to a stepfather may also have important consequences for the re-
productive strategies of girls, but contrary to these studies we did not find an as-
sociation between being exposed to a stepfather and an early age of menarche.
The present research has a number of strengths. First, the study looked at
several life history variables instead of examining just one life history trait.
Second, this study was not limited to poor inner-city women like many studies
in the United States on the effects of father absence, but was executed in a
unique setting (i.e., the island of Curaçao), with a predominantly Afro-
Caribbean population where early reproduction and single parenthood occur
frequently. Third, unlike many similar studies, the groups did not differ in edu-
cational level and occupational level of the parents, and the effects we found
can therefore quite unequivocally be attributed to the role of the father. Despite
these strong points, the present research has also a number of limitations. First,
we did not examine the quality of paternal investment, while several studies
have demonstrated that the quality of the relationship between father and daugh-
ter may also have consequences for the reproductive behavior of their daughter
(e.g., Belsky et al., 1991; Ellis, 2004). Second, our study focused only on one
type of sexual intercourse and we did not assess other forms of adolescent’s
sexual behavior. Therefore it is necessary that future research also focuses on
this aspect. Third, the measures we used to examine the importance of having
children, grandchildren and desire for marriage were somewhat limited simply
ODETTE JANICE VAN BRUMMEN–GIRIGORI AND ABRAHAM P. BUUNK
EMB (2015)
because these involved a single rating scale relying on the conscious evaluations
of the participants.
To conclude, the present study substantiated the notion based on the life
history theory that being abandoned by their father may have a number of con-
sequences for the reproductive strategies of girls. We demonstrated again that
the timing of father abandonment is crucial and that it is therefore important to
make a distinction between girls who were abandoned by their father before the
age of five and girls who were abandoned by their father between the age of six
and thirteen. It seems that girls who were abandoned by their father before the
age of five are more inclined to follow a fast life history strategy compared to
late father abandoned girls and father presence girls, while the differences be-
tween late father abandoned girls and father presence girls are less obvious. In
other words, girls tend to use the cue of their father presence (absence) to make
important reproductive scheduling decisions for their lives and this can be con-
sidered as a relevant cue to use. However, we do not want to suggest that this is
the only cue, nor that it does affect all reproductive scheduling. In general, the
present findings are important for several reasons. First, we have shown that
many effects of growing up without a father documented in several western so-
cieties can also be observed in the Caribbean island of Curaçao. Second, after
controlling for possible confounding factors it was shown that the educational
level of the participants and the occupational level of their parents were not in-
fluencing the effects obtained. Therefore, our findings cannot be attributed to
the factors that are often associated with father absence, including a lack of fi-
nancial resources and a low educational level, and may indeed be attributed to
growing up without a father. Third, our findings may contribute not only to life
history theory, but also to policies emphasizing the important role of fathers in
recognizing their children and in spending quality time with them.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are grateful to Keshia Curie and Auronette Girigori for their helpful advice.
We also want to thank our interviewers for their cooperation and dedication. Fi-
nally, we want to thank the participants for their cooperation. Without their
help, we could not have conducted this study.
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