title: Family background and female sexual behavior : A test of the father-absence theory in merseyside.
abstract: Since the seminal works of Draper and Harpending (1982) and Belsky et al. (1991) there has been considerable interest in the link between the family environment experienced as a child and consequent mating and reproductive strategy of females. In this paper, predictions from the hypothesis were tested using postal survey data from a cross-section of 415 women in Merseyside, UK. No relationships were found between father-absence, unrelated male-presence, parental divorce or parental death with age at first coitus, number of sexual partners, mean length of sexual relationships or mean length of relationships prior to coitus occurring.
authors.affiliation: University of Liverpool, UK. asaragrainger@yahoo.co.uk.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grainger
keywords: Father-absence; Mating strategies