Just curious if there are any studies on this re how being raised without an onsite dad makes in any difference positive or negative in how men related to women outside their family as an adult. Specifically the level of interpersonal respect and how they treat women socially. For the sake of simplicity I am talking about 2 parent families as hetero man/woman scenarios. If there is data on gay families in this single parent/both parent family context feel free to input results.
As some possible factors would they be more respectful because they see and appreciate the strength and sacrifices a single mother makes for the family? Would it be less because single mothers will often tend to let boys get away with disrespectful or rude behavior that an onsite dad would punish more severely. Also by the time boys are 13 or so they are often beyond the direct physical control of their mothers, but not their fathers, and so might control their behavior longer more in a 2 parent household.
Are there any studies of how this plays out with respect to male adult attitudes?
That is a VERY complex question! And I would suppose there are many differing answers depending on the specific situations.
I know in the case of a sociopath/conduct disorder child (incapable of following rules of society), the cause can be a combination of genetics and lack of parental guidance.
So the answer to this would not be a purely “nurture” one in all cases.
Are women more likely to be catcalled and openly propositioned in a neighborhood where most of the parents are single mothers, or a neighborhood where most of the parents are part of male-female, two-parent families?
The answer is obvious to me, and has been demonstrated empirically, but correlation is not causation.
Interesting question; but I’d WAG it matters far more how the kid sees his mother being treated by the men in her life (husband if she’s married, boyfriend(s) if she isn’t), and possibly also how she treats them, than whether or not she’s a single mom.
Well then I’m not sure any social science research is going to meet your proof standard. To the best of my understanding social scientists use a variety of questioning techniques to develop a general picture of a person’s attitudes and orientations. They have been doing this for quite some time and I think quantifying a “lesser” and “greater” plot of the complex of behaviors and attitudes that comprise “respect” is within the grasp of current social science.
If a social scientist asks a sample of respondents in a culture whether they exhibit Attitude A about women, and they norm the results, who is the authority that judges whether that attitude is respectful of women or not? For example, let’s say you are studying a culture in which wealth is martiarchically distributed, and all inherited wealth passes through daughters and controlled by wives. But at the same time, women are not permitted to serve as judicial officers, and only men are eligible to be judges or lawyers. How do you judge whether that society is “respectful of women” or not?
What is the point value of all the of the diverse criteria that you can include on your questionnaire , and how do you judge what the women comfortable with the traditional culture consider to be things of value to them, or things that they would desire to have the benefits of and responsibilities for?
It turns out that all the “social scientists” have been educated at western universities (dating western coeds) and grew up embracing western attitudes (raised by western moms) about respect for women. Where’s the dissent? Given the cultural bias, I don’t think anything is “within the grasp” of social scientists.
I’m sorry if I didn’t make it clearer in my OP. This is not a some worldwide study ranging cross culturally across the globe, the question in the OP is intended to apply to US households and contemporary notions of respectful and disrespectful attitudes in that context. You seem to be saying that determining the attitudes that comprise interpersonal “respect” of a male toward a female on that specific US centric context is some impossible to define conundrum. I really don’t think that’s the case.
Depends, mostly on whether they view their own mother and other female caretakers they had growing up as worthy of respect. But this also applies to people raised by single fathers or to those raised by two parents, or by their grandmother.