<p>"Daddy issues" is not a well-defined term, however, the extrapolation of attachment style theory answers to this question somewhat. </p>

<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_in_adults#Relationship_outcomes" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="Relationship outcomes of different attachment styles">Relationship outcomes of different attachment styles</a></p>

<p><em>(this is not clearly cognitive science, and more precisely "family issues" instead of "daddy issues")</em></p>

<p><a href="https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/4382/classification-of-attachment-styles/4554">Stack Overflow thread about the topic</a></p>

<p><em>(I'm new here, and amazed how well written are the answers :O )</em>
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/q3ibf.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/q3ibf.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-12T18:53:38.463Z
2016-11-12T18:53:38.463Z
2017-04-13T12:56:16.167Z
Bálint Kőszegi
<p>Here's a thesis on the effects of "daddy issues" on women's later relationships. Its content and its citations may be enough to satisfy your interest. </p>

<p>Jackson, L. M. (2010). Where's my daddy: Effects of fatherlessness on women's relational communication (Order No. 1477319). Available from ProQuest Dissertations &amp; Theses Global. (577596068). Retrieved from <a href="http://search.proquest.com/docview/577596068?accountid=13314" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://search.proquest.com/docview/577596068?accountid=13314</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The purpose of this thesis research was to understand the relationship
  between father absence and women’s communication styles in romantic
  heterosexual relationships under social cognitive theory. Two studies
  were conducted using a multi-method research approach in order to
  triangulate the results. Seven fatherless women were interviewed to
  arrive at a better understanding of how father absence informed their
  romantic relational experiences. Specifically, the topics of
  relationship roles, self-disclosure, expression, and self-silencing in
  romantic relationships were examined in the interviews. Participants
  reflected on what growing up fatherless meant to them and whether or
  not this had any influence on the role they played (dominant,
  submissive, egalitarian), and how open or closed they were in their
  romantic relationships (from their own perspective). Open
  communication refers to whether or not individuals express their
  thoughts, feelings and needs as well as how often they express these
  thoughts to their partners. Questions were also asked to determine
  whether these women self-disclosed intimate details to their romantic
  partners or self-silenced themselves. An online quantitative survey
  (N=131) examined similar research questions and tested predictions
  based on the results of the first qualitative study.</p>
  
  <p>The results from the interviews indicated that fatherless women
  consider themselves to be open, able to easily express themselves,
  independent and even dominant in their romantic relationships; yet
  despite holding these characteristics, these women remained in
  dysfunctional relationships for long periods of time. Further, when
  self-silencing did occur, it was because they did not want to not
  “push” their significant others away. There was also a tension between
  wanting to hold a dominant role in their romantic relationships and
  also being attracted to men who hold stereotypical male gender roles.
  Hence, there was a tension with agreeing or disagreeing with these
  socially constructed gender roles. In the second study, women who grew
  up fatherless had a significantly less happy childhood upbringing than
  those who had fathers. Also, in line with the results from the first
  study, fatherless women tended towards higher scores on
  self-disclosure, greater ease of expression, and lower scores on
  self-silencing. Significant associations were found between negative
  relationship with father and relational self-esteem, overall
  self-disclosure and overall self-silencing in romantic relationships.
  The respondents who had negative relationships with their fathers
  self-disclosed less in their romantic relationships and self-silenced
  more, hid their feelings more, and privileged their romantic partners
  in communication interactions. Taken together, findings from this
  triangulated study add to the nascent body of work examining and
  explaining the deleterious fallout from father absence on women’s
  communication and other variables in their romantic relationships.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-10T13:10:33.290Z
2016-11-10T13:10:33.290Z
Psyche
<p>The question is whether there exists a phenomenon in which a girl that had a bad relationship with a father (referring to a father that's too harsh, too cruel or that doesn't show love, and hates his daughter) implies that the girl will try to seek male attention and approval, when a "normal" individual would not, or a girl that seeks to be with "bad boys".</p>

<p>I'm interested in knowing if this has been researched and what is the name of this topic in cognitive science.</p>

<p>Note: I couldn't find any tag myself that fits for this question, I choosed any tag because I couldn't post, please change it if you can to something related to the question.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-04T18:19:12.360Z
There is something called the Elektra complex, which is the female form of the Oedipus complex. Is that what you were aiming at?
Robin Kramer-ten Have
<developmental-psychology><cognitive-development>
What are "daddy issues"?
Santropedro
# What are "daddy issues"?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-11-03)

The question is whether there exists a phenomenon in which a girl that had a bad relationship with a father (referring to a father that's too harsh, too cruel or that doesn't show love, and hates his daughter) implies that the girl will try to seek male attention and approval, when a "normal" individual would not, or a girl that seeks to be with "bad boys".

I'm interested in knowing if this has been researched and what is the name of this topic in cognitive science.

Note: I couldn't find any tag myself that fits for this question, I choosed any tag because I couldn't post, please change it if you can to something related to the question.

**Tags:** developmental-psychology, cognitive-development

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: There is something called the Elektra complex, which is the female form of the Oedipus complex. Is that what you were aiming at?  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2016-11-12. Score: 4

"Daddy issues" is not a well-defined term, however, the extrapolation of attachment style theory answers to this question somewhat.

[Relationship outcomes of different attachment styles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_in_adults#Relationship_outcomes "Relationship outcomes of different attachment styles")

*(this is not clearly cognitive science, and more precisely "family issues" instead of "daddy issues")*

[Stack Overflow thread about the topic](https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/4382/classification-of-attachment-styles/4554)

*(I'm new here, and amazed how well written are the answers :O )*
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/q3ibf.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/q3ibf.png)


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2016-11-10. Score: 3

Here's a thesis on the effects of "daddy issues" on women's later relationships. Its content and its citations may be enough to satisfy your interest.

Jackson, L. M. (2010). Where's my daddy: Effects of fatherlessness on women's relational communication (Order No. 1477319). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (577596068). Retrieved from <http://search.proquest.com/docview/577596068?accountid=13314>

> The purpose of this thesis research was to understand the relationship
> between father absence and women’s communication styles in romantic
> heterosexual relationships under social cognitive theory. Two studies
> were conducted using a multi-method research approach in order to
> triangulate the results. Seven fatherless women were interviewed to
> arrive at a better understanding of how father absence informed their
> romantic relational experiences. Specifically, the topics of
> relationship roles, self-disclosure, expression, and self-silencing in
> romantic relationships were examined in the interviews. Participants
> reflected on what growing up fatherless meant to them and whether or
> not this had any influence on the role they played (dominant,
> submissive, egalitarian), and how open or closed they were in their
> romantic relationships (from their own perspective). Open
> communication refers to whether or not individuals express their
> thoughts, feelings and needs as well as how often they express these
> thoughts to their partners. Questions were also asked to determine
> whether these women self-disclosed intimate details to their romantic
> partners or self-silenced themselves. An online quantitative survey
> (N=131) examined similar research questions and tested predictions
> based on the results of the first qualitative study.
>
> The results from the interviews indicated that fatherless women
> consider themselves to be open, able to easily express themselves,
> independent and even dominant in their romantic relationships; yet
> despite holding these characteristics, these women remained in
> dysfunctional relationships for long periods of time. Further, when
> self-silencing did occur, it was because they did not want to not
> “push” their significant others away. There was also a tension between
> wanting to hold a dominant role in their romantic relationships and
> also being attracted to men who hold stereotypical male gender roles.
> Hence, there was a tension with agreeing or disagreeing with these
> socially constructed gender roles. In the second study, women who grew
> up fatherless had a significantly less happy childhood upbringing than
> those who had fathers. Also, in line with the results from the first
> study, fatherless women tended towards higher scores on
> self-disclosure, greater ease of expression, and lower scores on
> self-silencing. Significant associations were found between negative
> relationship with father and relational self-esteem, overall
> self-disclosure and overall self-silencing in romantic relationships.
> The respondents who had negative relationships with their fathers
> self-disclosed less in their romantic relationships and self-silenced
> more, hid their feelings more, and privileged their romantic partners
> in communication interactions. Taken together, findings from this
> triangulated study add to the nascent body of work examining and
> explaining the deleterious fallout from father absence on women’s
> communication and other variables in their romantic relationships.


---

