Anti-Thesis: Rebellious Girls Who Have Their Fathers with Them

A lot of studies said that teenage girls rebel because of their fathers' absence. But why do Olivia Perry and Taylor Coleman seemed not to support these studies? These two teenage girls grew up with their fathers by their side but still became rebellious.

I found an article in the internet entitled Who Am I Supposed To Side With On Preachers’ Daughters? I’m Going With Nobody written by Jill O'Rourke. This article talks about fathers who are preachers but have rebellious daughters. The author wrote the problems these two girls’ parents are experiencing on raising their children

The author quoted, "Taylor’s dad allows her to storm off and then goes into the other room to ask God not to let his daughter become a porn star. Even he admits that he made mistakes raising his older children.”

This only tells that a person cannot easily change someone’s perspective. The father is a preacher but the daughter’s change of attitude will only happen if his daughter will be willing to change. The father cannot force his daughter especially when their child chooses to be very stubborn.

The author also stated, “This is also the tactic Olivia’s dad uses to deal with difficult parenting problems. In the middle of a family conversation, during which Olivia’s older sister admits to smoking weed and starts crying, the dad throws his head back and asks God to bless his family’s conversation. He resigns himself to the fact that they’re going to get a paternity test done, then places his hand on Olivia’s head and prayed some more.” 

Mr. Perry himself cannot persuade his daughter to obey him and change her attitude. He cannot influence her on things he wants her to be.

In conclusion, not all rebellious girls are fatherless. A lot of them have their fathers by their side. A lot of them have fathers who are trying their best to be a father. But their presence seem no difference when they are absent. The rebellion of a daughter is caused by her own decisions. This article proved that fathers are not a big influence to their daughters.

Anti-Thesis: The Effects of Isolation

Have you observed that a lot of people who are isolated are always quiet? Physically correct but emotionally  incorrect. Why? Because their hearts and minds speak and shout a lot. 

An article entitled "Loneliness: Causes, Effects and Treatments for Loneliness," written by Kendra Cheryy, caught my attention. This article, from the title itself mainly focus of an isolated person.

"Loneliness has a wide range of negative effects on both physical and mental health. One of the the health risks associated with loneliness include alcoholism and drug abuse," she wrote.

Alcoholism and drug abuse are forms of rebellion. At first, you won't think that this was because of being isolated. Lonely people may seem nice to other people's eyes. I think that instead of seeking happiness from the people around them, they found satisfaction from vices.

The author also quoted another effect which is about having an altered brain function.

We all know that all people have conscience even the what we call "The bad guys." But having an altered brain function can make people rebellious to the point that they will not care about anything or anyone. They will do everything just to destroy what they want to destroy.  

In conclusion, isolation leads to rebellion. The nice kids (because of solitude) will most likely to become prisoners.

Anti-Thesis: Causes of Athazagoraphobia

Athazagoraphobia is the fear of being ignored. Since they have that fear, they tend to be attention-seekers. From my previous post, being an attention-seeker is a form of rebellion. This mostly happens to girls. One of the causes of this is being fatherless. But what other factors that contribute for this kind of phobia? 

As I was searching on the internet. I found an article entitled "Athazagoraphobia Risk Factors & Causes." This article is about the factors of having an athazagoraphobia. It even includes ways how to treat it.

"Cases of athazagoraphobia are usually (although not always) caused by an intense negative experience from the past," the author wrote. 

What the author quoted generally talks that this fear starts when a person had negative experiences in the past. The article does not specifically emphasized that those negative experiences were caused by the father of an athazagoraphobic person. 

It talks about different kinds of traumas which include other people and situations.

If there is an external cause for athazagoraphobia, there is also an internal predisposition. I came across an article called "Athazagoraphobia is the fear of being forgotten!" The author talked about the external and internal factors of athazagoraphobia. The external was also about traumas.

But for the internal causes, "It is believed that heredity, genetics, and brain chemistry combine with life-experiences to play a major role in the development of phobias."

As commonly know, fears our products of traumas. But the fact is, fears, including athazagoraphobia can be inherited. If someone tends to be an attention-seeker, try discovering his or her ancestors if someone from them was athazagoraphobic. 

Since most of psychological illness are hereditary, athazagoraphobia, which is considered a psychological illness can be easily pass from generations to generations.

This leads to a conclusion that athazagoraphobia is not only caused by the rebellion of a fatherless daughter. Even if the father supports their daughter but have a history of athazagoraphobia among their relatives, there are still a lot of possibilities that the child will become athazagoraphobic or attention-seeker in which it can be mistaken as a form of rebellion.

Anti-Thesis: Teenage Rebellion

Finding it hard to negate all my former researchers, I came up with researching for others factors why teenage girls rebel.

Searching for an article that will against on my previous analysis, I found an article written by Josh McDowall. It was entitled "Rebellious Teen - Underlying Factors and How Parents and Teachers Can Help." This was about factors why teenagers rebel based on studies and observations.

McDowall pointed three causes of teenage rebellion:


1. Rules without relationship leads to rebellion.
As adolescence starts, children want to have freedom from what they used to do and have. These include their parents and others who have authority over those children. Rules themselves won't explain why they were set. Although for the authority, these mean love and protection, the inexperience ones won't see them that way. That is why relationship is important. Relationship is only built by communications. Having communications with children will make them understand the authority's purposes.

2. Violation of personal boundaries.
Based on the article, these personal boundaries include: emotional, physical and relational. The word itself means limitation. When dealing with children, people must know and respect he limitations they have for them. Even though they most likely to be younger than the authority or even strangers, they need to have a keen observation for these things. Crossing those limitations, would mean trespassing and stealing any aspect a child's life

3. Hyper-Controlling parent, teacher or coach.
We all know that no one was made to be a robot but a human. Human has its own brain. A brain that is far greater than a processing unit. This brain functions for us to think and decide. And s child's brain is not exempted for this function. Although innocent and inexperience, that doesn't mean that they should be manipulated. Instead, proper guidance is needed.

These three factors covered a general group of people. It does not focus on the father's role itself. Rather these factors focus on the society or the environment the child has.

Fatherless Girls vs. Girls with Father

Observation starts when you started seeing things that are unusual for you. Things that are unusual for you can be determined by things that you don't see on a daily basis. Want an example? Well, I knew a lot of teenage girls. What is unusual is that among them are attention-seeking girls. For me, its unusual!

Upon searching, I came across an article entitled "Fatherless Girls." This article, written by Patrice Lewis, is  about how fatherless girls behave.

"Girls, deprived of a father’s love during childhood, spend much of their lives lurching around and looking for love in all the wrong places. To be blunt, far too many fatherless girls sleep around with endless numbers of men, desperately seeking male approval, the approval they lacked while growing up," Lewis wrote.

This is one of the effects on girls not having their fathers around them. Based on what I already gathered before, fathers should be the "first love" of a daughter. When they did not have this kind of relationship from their fathers, they would to seek love from the others. Fatherless girls seeking love from their opposite sex is not that of a good idea because they don't have a basis on how men should really treat women and how they would correctly handle relationships.

As I search to compare the unusual things to the usual things for me, I found an article entitled, "Get it wrong and she'll explode: But get it right and a father's love will set up his daughter for life." Written by Steve Biddulph, it talks about the behaviors of girls with fathers.

Biddulph said, "Indeed, girls with an involved dad have been found in many studies to do better at school and have higher self-esteem. They're also less likely to become pregnant too young or have problems with alcohol or drugs."

Opposite to the fatherless girls, girls with fathers around them will most likely to be protected. Since they grew up with a father who taught them as they grow, they will gain more knowledge on how they should be treated by men and how they treat themselves as well.

Having the opportunity to see things that are not clearly seen by other people, what will you do for the things you observe that are not right?

Attention-Seekers

Do you know a lot of girls who are flirtatious? They always feel like a super star who walks around the campus wearing heavy make up, fashioned clothes, high heels, etc. To sum it up, they are always the center of attraction.

Well, it is one of the rebellious effects of daughters not having their fathers around. They always try to seek the attention they need from other people. Upon seeing an article, entitled The Effects of Fathers Rejecting Their Daughters by Thea Theresa English, one major effect written in that article is about girls seeking attention from men.

Therese English quoted, "When a daughter is rejected by her father and she's a teen, she may look to other men for the love and attention she craves."

It is a sort of a rebound relationship. When someone who just broke up with her boyfriend and had another boyfriend in just a short period of time, the guy will most likely to be a rebound for the girl.  A relationship where a girl tries to substitute her former boyfriend so that she can move on. Attention-seekers are like this. When they did not experienced a father's love, they try to substitute their fathers with other men around so that they'll get the attention they wanted. 

This type of girls most likely irritate people around. But people must understand them because they only wanted to feel like they are love. If you know someone who is like this, you need to be sensitive that one most likely reason why they act like like that is the absence of the father's love. 

Little Princess Turns to a Monster

A friend of mine told me that when she was just a kid, she used to be a daddy's little girl. They spent lots of time with each other compared with her siblings. But when she was about eight, her father left without knowing where he went. She rebelled against and blamed her mother for the lost of her best friend. It took her along time to forgive both her parents. She was angry and full of hatred. Until such a time that she just decided to forgive them. Still, her father is nowhere to be found. But she realized that she needs to move on.

I was asking her why did she rebelled. She just answered that she loves her father more than anyone else. I tried to do some research about her reason and came across an article entitled  "The Perceived Influence of a Father on His Daughter’s Development" written by Caitlin Goossen. This article contains researches and studies of the involvement of a father to a girl's life.

Goossen shared her researches of fathers' role in their daughters' lives, which I tried to analyze to get the factors of a daughter's rebellion over the father's absence:

A Father's Influence and Involvement

This father's role required him to spend lots of time with his daughter. Without this, the girl can be rebellious because of  finding someone to be with. A lot of girls cannot handle being lonely.

Long-Term Male Romantic Relationships

Numerous girls have a problem on being an attention-seeker. Without getting the attention wanted, rebellion starts. This problem starts when a father does not pay much attention with his daughter because girls most likely seek attention from the opposite sex.

Views of the Opposite Sex

Absence of a unique perspective from a father is also a factor of a daughter's rebellion because they will not understand men.

Sexuality

Without the father's physical contact can lead to a girl's sexual aggression, which is a form of rebellion. Physical contact is what makes women feel secure.

Body Image

Approvals, supports, praises, etc. from a father can help decrease a girl's insecurities. Fathers should give their fullest support for their daughters because insecurities may lead to rebellion if honors are not achieved.

Social Skills

Without interactions between a father and a daughter can destroy her relationships with others. Interactions with her father can help her easily adapt in different environments.

Academic Goals

The father must be the first one to encourage his daughter. A daughter fails in school then rebels because of not having someone who should motivate her first.

Hidden behind the effects are the factors why girls who haven't had fathers on their side rebel.  These factors must be addressed to all the fathers and to those who will become a father so that they will be aware as their daughter grow.