care, health and development Child: Original Article

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doi:10.1111/j.1365-2214.2011.01304.x

The inuence of the absence of fathers and the timing of separation on anxiety and self-esteem of adolescents: a cross-sectional survey
cch_1304 723..731

J. Luo,* L-G. Wang* and W-B. Gao*

*Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chinese Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Center, Zhongguancun Haidian Institute, Beijing, China Accepted for publication 9 July 2011

Abstract
Background Many rural children in China have been experiencing life without fathers since the 1990s, when their fathers left the rural areas for the urban areas to nd a job that would allow them to continue to support their family. However, to date, knowledge and understanding of the effects of the absence of fathers and timing of separation on the mental health of adolescents are limited. Methods A total of 2233 students, ranging in age from 11 to 23 years, from ve provinces of China, including 1024 adolescents who experienced the absence of their fathers, were recruited for this study. The data were collected using State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, which were self-report questionnaires. Results Findings from a structured questionnaire showed that the subjects who experienced life without fathers have increased state-anxiety (t = -5.80, P < 0.001) and lower self-esteem (t = 39.54, P < 0.001) when compared with other subjects, and the above results could be inuenced by gender and grade. A limited effect of the timing of separation was found on the mental health of students whose fathers were absent. A signicant timing group effect existed for state-anxiety scores [F(3,992) = 2.26, P = 0.05], and post test also revealed that the self-esteem of female scores in the 02 timing group was higher than other timing groups [F(3,992) = 4.58, P = 0.004]. Conclusion The inuence of the absence of fathers on the anxiety and self-esteem of adolescents seems to be more serious than our expectation, and the inuence will be different according to the timing of father absence.

Keywords absence of fathers, anxiety, self-esteem, timing of separation Correspondence: Wen-Bin Gao, Center of Mental Health of Promotion, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Science, Datun Road 4, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, China E-mail: gaowb@psych.ac.cn

Introduction
Patterns of family dynamics have changed dramatically in the rural areas of China over the past two decades. Since the 1990s, with the development of economy, a greater number of peasants migrated from the countryside to urban areas looking for jobs that were better paid. However, because of the hukou system (Household Registration System), migrant workers and their families who are not registered as ofcial residents in the cities are not entitled to subsidized housing, education, social security

or medical benets (Wang & Murie 2000; Feng et al. 2002; Aughinbaugh et al. 2005); therefore, most peasants have to leave their children in their hometown when immigrating to metropolitan areas. Children of migrant workers, known as the rural left-behind children, are often taken care of by the paternal or maternal elderly, rst kin, or someone else from the extended family. In most of these families, the father or both parents leave their hometown to work because physically demanding jobs, such as manual labour, factory work and service work are the most prevalent types of work available. As a result, only 10.5%

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of Chinese rural left-behind children live with their fathers now (Ye et al. 2008), and impressively, their fathers were usually absent when they were very young, possibly even before they were born. In recent years, a lot of attention has been paid to the inuence that absence of fathers has on the mental health of children. Previous studies showed that children, who lived in a family with only a mother, could fare poorly across a wide range of adolescent and adult outcomes, including poor cognitive achievement (Amato & Keith 1991; Lang & Zagorsky 2001), behaviour problems (Cynthia & Sara 2004; Aughinbaugh et al. 2005) and sexual identity difculty (Fitzgerald et al. 2003). Some studies agreed that the boys suffered from father absence more (Lee 1995; Ge et al. 2006). Some conclusions about the anxiety of children who experienced father absence were obtrusive. Research indicated that the relationship between fathers and their kids can predict the anxiety of children more than the relationship between mothers and their kids (Barrera & Jones 1992), and those children with father absence had a higher probability of having an anxiety disorder (Scarr & McCartney 1988). It was reported that the anxiety level of children with father absence in the USA has increased dramatically over the last 40 years (from 6% in 1960 to 24% in 2000) (Nock & Einolf 2008). Moreover, anxiety is closely related to self-esteem for those children who have experienced separation from a parent (Pottinger 2005; Xue & Li 2007). Research has focused, to a large extent, on trait-anxiety as a possible factor involved in harming self-esteem (Sedikides et al. 2004), and low self-esteem has been proposed as a reason for the association between insecure attachment and anxiety (Lee & Hankin 2009). Others report that adults who come from single-mother families have lower self-esteem than adults who come from two-parent families (McCormick & Kennedy 2000; Ge et al. 2006). However, there was agreement that the inuence of fathers on the self-esteem of children could be negligible when compared with the mothers inuence (Amato & Keith 1991). Indeed, many published studies have been conducted in different regions of China on emotion, behaviour, and personality of the left-behind children and it is commonly thought that these children have both higher anxiety (Liu et al. 2007) and lower self-esteem levels (Hao & Cui 2007) than those children who were kept with their nuclear family. Increasing numbers of adolescents who have experienced parent absence are reaching college age, and they have also shown higher anxiety and lower self-esteem levels than their classmates in the university who had both parents present (Li et al. 2009). However, none of these studies made an explicit distinction between the families

where only the father left, only the mother left (even seldom) or both parents left (Felner et al. 1975), nor did they differentiate from the inuence of separation timing on the mental health of these children. There are several reasons to believe that the timing of separation might be systematically associated with individual differences in childrens trajectories of adjustment (Hetherington 1992). However, the timing of father absence has been measured mainly in the eld of cognitive performance (Svanum et al. 1982), female pregnancy (Ellis et al. 2003), youth antisocial behaviour (Grant 1989) and menarche (Maestripieri et al. 2004). Biller pointed out that the younger the kids were when separated from their fathers, the worse their mental health would be after growing up (Biller 1974, 1993). Unfortunately, few studies focused on the timing of father absence and its effects on anxiety and self-esteem.

Hypothesis of the present study

The current study aimed to explore the inuence of father absence on the anxiety and self-esteem levels of children and adolescents with respect to the timing of separation. Just as mentioned above, it is important to note that in China, the rural father commonly has to work in the city for an entire year, returning home only at the Chinese New Year. After the Spring Festival, they have to go back to work in the cities, which means that they spend on average only 12 weeks at home, and then the separation cycle is repeated. Moreover, there are still some peasants who do not go back home for several years. The childrens age when their fathers leave home could greatly vary from birth to the teenage years. As a result, father absence in the present study was dened as a situation where a child, younger than 14 years old, lived without their fathers for more than 6 months. The principal hypotheses were: 1 The adolescents with father absence have higher anxiety and lower self-esteem levels than the adolescents with consistent father presence. 2 The adolescents with father absence have higher anxiety and lower self-esteem levels than the adolescents with mother presence. 3 The male adolescents with father absence have higher anxiety and lower self-esteem than that of adolescents with father presence and mother absence. 4 The younger the adolescents were when left behind by their fathers, the higher the anxiety and the lower the self-esteem.

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Father absence and anxiety/self-esteem of adolescents 725

Methods
Participants
Participants are from the investigation project named Research and Intervene to the Mental and Behavior Health of PeasantWorkers Offspring. This project lasted from 2006 to 2010 and includes eight national typical labour-export provinces and ve typical labour-import provinces, approximately 50 schools, and almost 20,000 rural left-behind children. All research arrangements are executed by the local government, and school functionary belonged to this project, which is subsidized by the China Association for Science and Technology. Participants in the present study were recruited from 10 elementary and middle schools of four typical labour-export provinces (Sichuan, Chongqing, Anhui and Guizhou) and one university, where many students who experienced father absence when they were young (in Hebei province) attend. Two standards were established to warrant inclusion in the study: (1) participants with father absence were looked after by their mothers or their grandmothers/grandfathers (in Chinese rural areas, generally, people lived with their family of origin, and they took care of one another; however, some children with father absence were taken care of by their uncles or aunts); (2) although the separation of fathers and children was always repeated, children could be recognized as the rural left-behind children if their fathers had been absent for more than 6 months before the age of 14. The sample size was 2233, including 1024 students whose fathers were absent (students with father absence, FAS), 190 whose mothers were absent (students with mother absence, MAS) and 1019 students whose fathers did not leave for work and stayed in the hometown (students with father presence, FPS). In all, 996 participants were male, while 1237 were female (Table 1).
Table 1. Demographic characteristics and timing of separation of participants: n (%) Gender Male Female Group Father-absent student Father-present student Mother-absent student Timing of father absence 02 years old 36 years old 712 years old 13+ years old

Measures
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, which is a self-report assessment that includes separate measures of state- and trait-anxiety. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory contains the routine 40 items, using Likert scale ratings, ranging from 1 (no, not at all) to 4 (yes, completely), as translated into Chinese in 1999. In the present study, the coefcient value (a) of internal consistency for state-anxiety was 0.83 among elementary school students, 0.87 among junior high school students (JHSS), 0.88 among high school students and 0.90 among college students; the internal consistency coefcients for trait-anxiety were 0.78, 0.82, 0.84 and 0.84 among the four grades of students, respectively. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (1999) was translated into Chinese in 1988, and consists of a 10-item, 4-point Likert-type scale (1 = completely not true, 2 = not true, 3 = true, 4 = completely true). The higher the score is, the higher the level of self-esteem. In the present study, the internal consistency coefcient was a = 0.76 among elementary school students, 0.77 among JHSS, 0.81 among senior high school students (SHSS) and 0.85 among college students. The participants demographics included name, age, grade, nationality, parents education level, duration of separation, frequency of parents coming back and connecting with their children, the way of connection, etc.

Procedures
Data collection took place in classrooms during school hours. The session began with an introduction to the project objectives with emphasis on condentiality. The data was analysed using SPSS 17.0. First, State-Trait Anxiety, Self-Esteem Inventory scores, and the participants demographic data were analysed using descriptive statistical methods.
Pupil n 291 154 137 291 100 143 48 100 21 23 56 0 % 52.92 47.08 34.36 49.14 16.49 21.00 23.00 56.00 JHSS n 544 281 263 544 270 216 58 270 28 49 156 37 % 51.65 48.35 49.63 39.71 10.66 10.37 18.15 57.78 13.70 SHSS n 351 188 163 351 166 140 45 166 12 32 67 55 % 53.56 46.44 47.29 39.89 12.82 7.23 19.28 40.36 33.13 College n 1028 366 662 1028 487 502 39 487 79 71 125 212 % 35.60 64.40 47.37 48.83 3.79 16.22 14.58 25.67 43.53 Total n 2214 989 1225 2214 1023 1001 190 1023 140 175 404 304 % 44.60 55.40 46.21 45.21 8.58 13.69 17.11 39.49 29.72

JHSS, junior high school students; SHSS, senior high school students.

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726 J. Luo et al.

In the current study, the timing of separation for FAS was a demographic characteristic we were interested in and was dened as how old FAS were when separation of father and child happened, which was calculated by their current age minus the duration of separation. For example, if a child was 16 years old and his father had worked outside for 7 years, the timing of separation would be approximately 9 years of age. As another example, if a child was 11 years old and his father had worked outside for 11 years, the timing of separation would be before he was born. Secondly, most data in this paper were acquired when the timing of father absence occurred after 7 years old and educational age in China (6 years of age is when children go to elementary school, and the duration of elementary school is 6 years, so at age 13 children go to middle school). In addition, taking Eriksons rst four stages of child development into consideration (Santrock & Wohlford 1970), the present study divided the timing of separation into four groups: 02 years old, 36 years old, 712 years old and 13 years old and older. Third, the data were checked for normality, linearity and homogeneity of variancecovariance matrices. The distribution of the scores was reasonably normal on all scales. Finally, we performed two multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) within a generalized linear model to investigate the relationship between scales scores and demographic characteristics, the rst of which was executed using the whole database and the second of which was executed using the subset of scores from FAS database.

spent 2 or more years away before coming back. To isolate the effect of timing of father absence, the frequency of coming back home and the frequency of contacting between father and their children by phone was controlled as the covariant. Table 1 shows the sample and timing of separation. Because the elementary school participants were younger than 13 years old, there was no. 13+ timing group for them.

MANOVA test of group difference

There were statistically signicant correlations identied between state-anxiety, trait-anxiety and self-esteem. Self-esteem was signicantly negatively correlated with state-anxiety and trait-anxiety (r = -0.32, P < 0.01), and signicantly positively correlated between state-anxiety and trait-anxiety was found (r = 0.71, P < 0.01). Therefore, we performed two MANOVA. The rst one within a generalized linear model was carried out to investigate the effect of groups (FAS, FPS and MAS), gender, grades and interaction of the three factors on three scales scores (state-anxiety, trait-anxiety and self-esteem). From the result, we found the signicant main and interaction effects (Wilks k, F = 2.182183.888, P-values ranged from <0.05 to <0.001) (see Table 2). With regard to state-anxiety, participants who had an absent father had higher scores than participants in all other groups (P < 0.01), whereas there was no difference of state-anxiety between MAS and FPS groups. Regarding self-esteem, the scores of FAS participants were lower than those of another two groups (P < 0.001), while participants of FPS group had higher self-esteem scores than others (P < 0.001). Several signicant interaction effects, including group, emerged in all scales. First, with regard to state-anxiety, a trend for a group gender effect was found [F(2,2190) = 4.46, P = 0.012], indicating that state-anxiety scores were higher for the FAS group than for all other groups with male participants and there was no signicant group effect for state-anxiety in female participants (Fig. 1a). There was a signicant group grade effect in state-anxiety scores [F(6,2190) = 6.29, P < 0.001], and the simple effect test revealed that a signicant group effect was found only in school-aged children where the state-anxiety of PAS group was higher than all other groups (Fig. 1c). In addition, a signicant interaction effect of group, gender and grade emerged in state-anxiety scale, and post hoc analyses per grade revealed a signicant group gender effect over SHSS, [F(2,345) = 5.82, P = 0.003], but not over all other grades, which indicated that gender affected the group differences of stateanxiety in SHSS participants.

Results
Of the 2233 questionnaires distributed, 19 were unqualied and excluded, yielding a response rate of 99.1%. In the unqualied data set, 15 questionnaires were excluded due to missing values for more than 10% of overall questions, and the others were unqualied due to having the same responses to almost all of the questions.

Description of demographic information

Over 95% of students were of Han nationality, with 88.1% on average having a father whose education attainment was primary/secondary level, and 7.6% had fathers who were illiterate. In all, 22% of students could contact their fathers every day, and more than 65% of them could contact their fathers every week via phone. In total, 98% of participants connected with their fathers using a mobile telephone or a xed-line telephone, and few of them wrote letters. Over 50% of fathers could come home at every Chinese New year, and the rest usually

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Table 2. Main effects and interactive effects among groups, gender, grades to the anxiety and self-esteem State-anxiety n Group Father-absent student Father-present student Mother-absent student Gender Male Female Grades Pupil JHSS SHSS Collage Group gender Group grades Group gender grades 1023 1001 190 989 1225 291 544 351 1028 M 44.83 42.69 43.08 43.63 43.73 40.86 45.17 46.41 42.76 SD 6.48 9.79 9.90 8.13 8.79 8.36 8.13 8.81 8.14 F 16.87 P <0.001 Trait-anxiety M 44.40 44.45 45.49 44.09 44.83 43.00 44.82 46.15 44.19 SD 5.80 8.64 9.04 7.16 7.82 7.76 8.12 8.07 6.75 F 1.83 P 0.165 Self-esteem M 24.63 33.12 29.46 28.57 29.26 28.25 28.11 28.21 29.88 SD 3.22 6.03 5.25 6.17 6.51 5.90 5.98 5.84 6.77 F 770.23 P <0.001

0.18

0.72

5.12

0.024

7.41

0.006

35.53

<.001

10.74

<0.001

12.00

<0.001

4.42 6.23 2.83

0.012 <0.001 0.010

3.34 1.73 3.87

0.035 0.113 0.001

1.62 15.12 1.46

0.186 <0.001 0.18

JHSS, junior high school students; SHSS, senior high school students.

Regarding trait-anxiety, there was a signicant group gender effect, F(2,2190) = 3.37, P = 0.035, suggesting female MAS group had higher trait-anxiety than all other groups of female, and the scores of the trait-anxiety scale did not differ between groups for male participants (Fig. 1b). Also, a signicant group gender grade effect was discovered for traitanxiety, and post hoc analyses per grade revealed that, in participants of SHSS, a signicant group gender effect was presented, F(2,345) = 3.25, P = 0.039, but not in all other ones, which indicated that the group differences of trait-anxiety were inuenced by gender in SHSS participants. Finally, regarding self-esteem, a signicant group grade effect was found, F(6,2190) = 15.11, P < 0.001, and indicated that FAS participants had lower self-esteem than all other groups in JHSS and college grades, whereas no signicant differences between groups existed in another two grades (Fig. 1d).

MANOVA test within-group difference

The second test using the subset of database from FAS participants was executed to test the differences in the scales scores between timing of father absence, gender, grades and the interaction effect of the above three factors. A statistically signicant association with the three scales scores was also found for grades, timing grades, gender grades (Wilks k, F = 1.473 7.840, P-values ranged from <0.06 to <0.008). As presented in Table 3, signicant main effects of grade for all scales were noted, and participants trait-anxiety and self-esteem also differed across gender. Because our interest in the present study focused on group diversity, the analyses of the differences in all

the scales scores between grades or genders were not included here. There were signicant main group effects for state-anxiety and self-esteem, but no group effects for trait-anxiety existed. The GamesHowell post hoc test was conducted to determine where the signicant differences in mean scale scores between groups lie (see Table 3). There was not a signicant main effect of timing of separation for state-anxiety, but a marginal signicant timing grade effect was found for state-anxiety, F(9,991) = 1.87, P = 0.092, indicating that, in SHSS participants, the state-anxiety scores of 02 timing group was higher than 36 timing groups (Fig. 2), while no timing effects for trait-anxiety or self-esteem existed. In addition, a signicant interaction effect of timing, gender and grade emerged in the self-esteem scale, and post hoc analyses per grade revealed a signicant timing gender effect over JHSS, F(3,262) = 4.62, P = 0.004, but not over all other grades, which indicated that females in the 02 separation timing group in JHSS showed lower self-esteem (Fig. 3).

Discussion
The current study is the rst large-scale, nationally representative study conducted in China that examines the impact of father absence on the anxiety of children and adolescents. First, ndings showed that different guardians had different effects on the anxiety level of children. Children who lived with only their mothers showed higher anxiety levels than those children cared for by both parents or by grandparents (in the present study, over 77.9% kids were cared for by their fathers and grandparents together when their mothers went out for work; while in

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J. Luo et al.

Figure 1. Anxiety and self-esteem comparing among three groups on the gender and grades. Mean state-anxiety scores across groups [students with father absence (FAS), students with mother absence (MAS) and students with father presence (FPS)] for male and female participants were presented in (a), and mean trait-anxiety scores in (b); Shown in (c) and (d) were respectively the scores of state-anxiety and self-esteem across groups in different grades. *P < 0.05. JHSS, junior high school students; SHSS, senior high school students.

the group with father absence, about 90% kids were cared for by mothers alone). Also, compared with children with father presence and mother absence, the boys with father absence showed higher state-anxiety. Some studies suggested that different behaviours or attitudes of fathers compared with those of mothers could promote child anxiety or could protect a child from anxiety (Cabrera et al. 2000). Meanwhile, the present study also showed that when anxiety is assessed, boys and girls appeared to have similar responses to separation (Jekielek 1998). Secondly, the main ndings of the study showed that the timing of father absence does affect the level of anxiety of children at different ages. We found that the father absence event appeared to be more emotionally dangerous if the father left home between 7 and 12 years of childrens age, which is the elementary period in China. In a longitudinal study, Flouri

and Buchanan (2003) demonstrated that father involvement, reported by mothers in non-intact families during the ages of 07 years, had a stronger effect on adolescents behaviour and emotional problems than mothers involvement, regardless of whether mother involvement was low or high. At the same time, the present study proved that father absence had a long-lasting impact on the childs development (Lamb 1996). The studies by Hetherington and Walker and McGraw revealed that the father played a more important role in the emotional control and regulation of children when compared with the mother and other relatives (Hetherington 1979; Walker & McGraw 2000). In China, children start school at 7 years old and are involved in developing relationships with teachers and classmates beyond their family members; therefore, the ill effects of father absence were visibly displayed. This is perhaps an explanation for the higher state-anxiety of children with father absence.

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Table 3. Main effects and interactive effects among timing of father absence, gender, grades to the anxiety and self-esteem State-anxiety n Timing of father absence 02 years old 36 years old 712 years old 13+ years old Gender Male Female Grades Pupil JHSS SHSS Collage Timing gender Timing grades Timing gender grades 140 175 404 304 471 553 100 270 166 487 M 44.82 45.01 45.38 44.02 45.05 44.66 44.12 46.96 46.54 43.24 SD 6.59 6.56 6.71 6.01 6.37 6.57 7.70 7.21 5.88 5.44 F 2.62 P 0.050 Trait-anxiety M 44.51 44.73 44.18 44.42 44.19 44.58 43.50 45.06 45.50 43.84 SD 5.59 6.00 6.09 5.39 5.89 5.73 6.67 7.18 5.31 4.76 F 0.40 P 0.75 Self-esteem M 24.44 42.75 24.46 24.86 24.59 24.66 24.04 24.54 25.81 24.40 SD 3.43 3.20 3.39 2.89 3.48 3.00 4.24 3.55 3.36 2.61 F 1.123 P 0.342

0.88

0.349

1.15

0.285

0.11

0.739

25.46

<0.001

5.43

0.001

9.62

<.001

0.13 1.77 0.37

0.941 0.079 0.939

0.53 1.32 0.88

0.66 0.227 0.536

1.02 1.07 2.57

0.385 0.381 0.009

JHSS, junior high school students; SHSS, senior high school students.

Figure 3. The interaction effects of timing gender on the self-esteem of Figure 2. The effects of timing of father absence on the state-anxiety

among grades. Mean state-anxiety scores across timing groups in different grades. Because the pupil participants were younger than 13 years old, there was no. 13+ timing group for them. *P < 0.05, 02 versus 36. JHSS, junior high school students; SHSS, senior high school students.

junior high school students. Mean self-esteem scores of gender across timing groups in junior high school students. *P < 0.05.

The current study is also the rst to examine fathers inuence on their childrens self-esteem using a relatively large population. First, the ndings showed that children who experienced the absence of their fathers had lower self-esteem. One possible reason for this is poverty. Generally, the family managed by only the mother is poorer. It has been reported that the annual income of these peasant-workers was only about 17 000 RMB (about $2600) (Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the Peoples Republic of

China 2009). Research has consistently documented that poverty alone has many detrimental effects on child development and carries a greater risk of low self-esteem (Duncan et al. 1994). The other reason was possibly low frequency of interaction between fathers and their kids. The previous study considered if the father was actively involved in their childrens lives, the children would show higher self-esteem (Lamb 1996), especially girls (Elder et al. 1985). We did not nd gender differences as far as children with father absence were concerned, but girls self-esteem was lower than the boys as a whole in the present study, which is consistent with Larsen and Busss ndings (Larsen & Buss 2005).

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730 J. Luo et al.

Secondly, as indicated by the gures, we found that the timing of father absence does relate to the level of self-esteem of children of different ages. Middle school girls showed lower selfesteem when father absence occurred before 2 years old in the present study. Chubb and colleagues (1997) noted a decrease in self-esteem in adolescent females who experienced father absence during the 9th through 12th grades. Although the present research did not nd a main difference between genders, the interaction effects indicated that middle school girls who experienced father absence before 2 years of age had lower self-esteem. Other studies also showed that the relationship between sons and their fathers during childhood/ adolescence was a sufcient predictor of self-esteem in adulthood (Allen et al. 1994; Dick & Bronson 2005). In fact, until recently, the role of the father was considered less important than that of the mother. Fathers are now considered just as important as mothers in the development and well-being of children (Newman & Grauerholz 2002). Fathering is more than a physical presence. Father absence seems to have unfortunate effects on childhood and causes ongoing issues, not only with cognition and behaviour, but also with emotions and the self. Moreover, the absence of fathers and the feelings associated with this type of familial occurrence was reportedly not able to be overcome by the motherchild bond (East et al. 2006).

father absence during ages 712 showed greater state-anxiety than other groups, and the female adolescents who experienced father absence between ages 02 showed lower self-esteem than boys with similar experiences.

Key messages
Different guardians had different effects on the anxiety level of children. Children who lived with only their mothers showed higher anxiety levels than those children cared for by both parents or by grandparents. The boys with father absence showed higher state-anxiety. The timing of father absence does affect the level of anxiety of children at different ages. Father absence event appeared to be more emotionally dangerous if the father left home between 7 and 12 years of childrens age, which is the elementary period in China. Children who experienced the absence of their fathers had lower self-esteem, but no gender difference. The timing of father absence does relate to the level of self-esteem of children of different ages. Middle school girls showed lower self-esteem when father absence occurred before 2 years old in the present study.

Limitation
One limit of this study was that it was based on a cross-sectional design; therefore, the direction of associations between variables could not be determined. In addition, some factors such as social economic status, major life events, relationships between father and kids and mothers parenting style not well-controlled are possibly some reasons for a lesser effect of timing of separation. Mentionable, classication of timing of father absence needs to be carefully planned in other regions with a different child development schedule. Future studies will adopt longitudinal designs and a large sample to better understand the issues that were raised in the present report. In spite of these limitations, our ndings focused on a special, new kind of Chinesestyle father absence, and strongly emphasized the different inuence of the timing of father absence on the development of children and adolescents.

References
Allen, J. P., Hauser, S. T., Bell, K. L. & OConnor, T. G. (1994) Longitudinal assessment of autonomy and relatedness in adolescent-family interactions as predictors of ego development and self-esteem. Child Development, 65, 179194. Amato, P. R. & Keith, B. (1991) Parental divorce and the well-being of children: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 2646. Aughinbaugh, A., Pierret, C. R. & Rothstein, D. S. (2005) The impact of family structure transitions on youth achievement: evidence from the children of the NLSY79. Demographic, 42, 447468. Barrera, M. & Jones, C. G. (1992) Family and peer social support as specic correlates of adolescent depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 20, 116. Biller, H. B. (1974) Paternal Deprivation. Huntington Books, D. C. Heath, Lexington, MA, USA. Biller, H. B. (1993) Fathers and Families: Paternal Factors in Child Development. Auburn House, Westport, CT, USA. Cabrera, N., Tamis-Lemonda, C. S., Bradley, R. H., Hofferth, S. & Lamb, M. E. (2000) Fatherhood in the twenty-rst century. Child Development, 71, 127136. Chubb, N. H., Fertman, C. I. & Ross, J. L. (1997) Adolescent self-esteem and locus of control: a longitudinal study of gender and age differences. Adolescence, 32, 113129.

Summary
The results of this study indicated that the father had a greater inuence on the state-anxiety and self-esteem of adolescents than that of the mothers. The adolescents who experienced

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2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Child: care, health and development, 38, 5, 723731