EXPERIENCES OF FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WHO GREW UP IN FATHER ABSENT HOMES

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of female university students at a selected university in Zimbabwe who grew up for a larger part of their childhood without their biological fathers. The research adopted an explorative case study design and used semi-structured interviews to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of education and psychology in the community Vol. 7; no. 1/2; p. 16
Main Authors Herbert, Zirima, Princess, Gadzikwa
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oradea International Journal of Education & Psychology in the Community 01.07.2017
Subjects
Adults
Children & youth
College students
Daughters
Divorce
Drug Addiction
Educational Experience
Emotional Response
Families & family life
Family (Sociological Unit)
Fathers
Females
Interviews
Laborers
Mens health
Migrant workers
Nonresidents
Parents & parenting
Pregnancy
Preschool Children
Qualitative Research
Race relations
Researchers
Resilience (Psychology)
Sampling
Self Esteem
Semi Structured Interviews
Social Differences
Structured Interviews
Trends
University students
Africa
South Africa
Zimbabwe
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Summary:The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of female university students at a selected university in Zimbabwe who grew up for a larger part of their childhood without their biological fathers. The research adopted an explorative case study design and used semi-structured interviews to collect data on the lived experiences of the students. A total offifteen participants aged between 20 and 25 years were selected for this study using snowballing sampling technique. Data was analysed using the thematic content approach. Results indicated that the majority of female students who grew up in father absent homes turned out to be resilient as they had gone through difficult periods in their lives. The nature of father absence had varying effects on the female students with those who were abandoned by their fathers expressing anger and sometimes even hatred towards the father. A common feature among all the participants was that they had unstable romantic relationships and some looked up to their boyfriends to fill the void left by their absent fathers. This study recommends that future researchers should explore the psycho-social differences that exist between women who grew up in father absent homes and those that grew up with their fathers.
ISSN:2069-4695