The First Study to Provide Experimental Evidence of the Negative Effects of Fatherlessness on Female Sexual Behavior

The first study to provide an experimental link between fatherlessness and detrimental effects on female sexual behavior was titled "The Effects of Paternal Disengagement on Women’s Sexual Decision Making: An Experimental Approach". It would be difficult to find a more important study demonstrating the importance of fathers in the household than this. We do hear from time to time about how beneficial men are in the lives of boys but this study provides the other side of the equation. Quote:

"An abundance of research demonstrates a robust association between father absence—or low-quality paternal involvement—and daughters’ accelerated sexual development, promiscuity, and sexual risk taking. Although recent natural experiments provide support for fathers playing a causal role in these outcomes, these effects have not been examined using a randomized experimental design to eliminate genetic and environmental confounds inherent in previous studies.

We redressed this empirical gap by experimentally testing the effects of primed paternal disengagement cues on women’s sexual decision making. Across 5 experiments, reminders of paternal disengagement increased women’s activation of
sexual thoughts (Experiment 1), sexual permissiveness (Experiments 2-4), and negativity toward condom use (Experiment 5)... These results provide the first true experimental
evidence supporting a causal relationship between paternal disengagement and changes in women’s psychology that promote risky sexual behavior."