The Effect of Absent Biological Father on Female Biological Maturity: Results From a Nationally Representative Sample of Adolescents

Date01 February 2019
Published date01 February 2019
DOI10.1177/1043986218810612
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986218810612
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice
2019, Vol. 35(1) 36 –51
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1043986218810612
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Article
The Effect of Absent
Biological Father on
Female Biological Maturity:
Results From a Nationally
Representative Sample of
Adolescents
Michael F. TenEyck1, Sarah A. El Sayed1,
and J. C. Barnes2
Abstract
Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper’s sociobiological theory suggests that early family
context influences an individual’s developmental trajectory in adolescence. A key
hypothesis derived from the developmental model is that females growing up in a
home without a father will have an earlier onset of puberty and may reach pubertal
maturity sooner than their peers who grow up in homes with a father present. The
current study uses a nationally representative sample of American youth (Add Health)
to examine the association between having an absent biological father and female
biological maturity, controlling for additional theoretically informed covariates. The
current study contributes to the literature by utilizing a lifetime measure of absent
biological father and a biological maturity scale (measured in adolescence) that taps
into multiple aspects of pubertal development. Results from multivariate regression
analysis revealed no significant association between absent biological father and female
biological development. This finding suggests that, contrary to the sociobiological
model, having an absent biological father in childhood is not predictive of advanced
pubertal development among female adolescents.
Keywords
female risk factors, biological maturity, absent father, sociobiological theory, pubertal
development
1The University of Texas at Arlington, TX, USA
2University of Cincinnati, OH, USA
Corresponding Author:
Michael F. TenEyck, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, The University of Texas at
Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019, USA.
Email: michael.teneyck@uta.edu
810612CCJXXX10.1177/1043986218810612Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeTenEyck et al.
research-article2018
TenEyck et al. 37
It has long been a mainstay of criminology that rates of delinquency and crime escalate
during adolescence, sharply decline in early adulthood, and gradually approach zero in
early-to-middle adulthood (Hirschi & Gottfredson, 1983; Quetelet, 1833). Evidence
suggests this relationship can be at least partially attributed to biological and psycho-
logical factors that show variation in adolescence (Barnes & Beaver, 2012; Moffitt,
1993). It is essential, then, to understand the factors that change during this develop-
mental period as these factors may also affect the etiology of delinquency. Researchers
have thus examined pubertal development (i.e., biological maturity) and the factors
that influence variation in pubertal development among adolescents. Briefly, biologi-
cal maturity refers to the pubertal stage in which an individual’s body begins to develop
into its adult form. It is marked by a change in voice and hair growth on the face and
under arms for males, and breast development and menarche for females. Our focus
here will be on female biological maturity in adolescence.
The age at which females reach biological maturity varies in the general population
and that variation is associated with psychological and cognitive outcomes (Walvoord,
2010). Early biological development during adolescence is specifically related to myr-
iad outcomes including risky sexual behavior and early pregnancy, substance use,
alcohol use, delinquency, and breast cancer (Moffitt, 1993; Newcomer & Udry, 1987;
Vihko & Apter, 1986). Moreover, there is reason to believe that biological maturity—
especially the timing of it—will be affected by antecedent socio-environmental fac-
tors. One hypothesis proposed by Belsky, Steinberg, and Draper (1991) is that the
family context, specifically having an absent father, leads to a stressful rearing envi-
ronment and can lower the age of pubertal development for females. Because early
developers—that is, those rating high on biological maturity relative to their peers—
tend to show higher levels of delinquency and engage in higher levels of sexual activ-
ity during adolescence and young adulthood (Barnes & Beaver, 2010; Haynie, 2003;
Moffitt, 1993), it is important for criminologists to study the causal precursors to
pubertal maturation.
Belsky and colleagues (1991) argue that—for females—living with an absent bio-
logical father in childhood is characterized by a stressful rearing environment, inse-
cure attachment to parents, and early behavior problems. In adolescence and young
adulthood, this results in a reproductive strategy that favors risky lifestyles, early
pubertal development, precocious sexuality, and limited investment in childrearing.
Thus, growing up with an absent biological father may be a risk factor that triggers an
early onset of pubertal development.
Although the relationship between an absent biological father and female biologi-
cal maturity has been examined previously (Bogaert, 2005; Moffitt, Caspi, Belsky, &
Silva, 1992; Tither & Ellis, 2008), the current study will add to the literature by using
a national probability sample of female adolescents, a more inclusive scale measuring
biological maturity that taps into several items (much of the prior work in this area has
focused exclusively on menarche as the indicator of biological maturity), and a con-
servative lifetime measure of absent biological father. Specifically, the current study
will test the hypothesis that females who reported never living with their biological
father will report higher biological maturity scores, net the effect of a host of

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