How Fatherlessness Negatively Impacts Telomere Length

Fatherlessness has a profound negative impact on children throughout the course of their lives. This fact has been well documented in the social sciences for decades.

But what is not widely known and understood is that fatherlessness also impacts important microscopic intricacies in the human body. Consider telomere health.

“What are telomeres?” you ask. Well, they are fundamentally essential to your ongoing health. Telomeres are the tiny but essential protective endcaps of your chromosomes, which keep them from becoming frayed or tangled. They are required for healthy cell division and thus human growth. When telomere health is compromised, the aging process increases.

What boosts telomeres is good. And what diminishes them is bad.

In fact, an article published in 2012 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) explains how telomere length in early life predicts lifespan in both humans and animals. Their findings “emphasize the importance of understanding factors that determine early life telomere length.”

So yes, telomeres are fundamentally important to healthy growth and life.

But what is most striking is numerous academic studies have shown that paternal genetics are intimately linked to telomere length.

Additional research published in 2007 in PNAS explains that while “telomere length is emerging as a biomarker for aging and survival” they also find that telomere length is paternally inherited. Ten scholars authoring this study state, “Our study revealed that offspring TL [telomere length] is significantly correlated with paternal, but not maternal TL.” The difference in paternal influence on telomere length over maternal genetic influence was almost threefold.

A large-scale 2010 study published in the European Journal of Human Genetics states,

We conclude that the accumulated published data, further supported by this study, suggests that TL heritability mainly depends on the father.

In the study’s abstract, the authors explain more directly, “Our findings indicate that fathers contribute significantly stronger to the telomere length of the offspring compared with mothers.”

This study also points out that it is not only fathers, but grandfathers as well, that drive healthy telomere lengths in children.

Father Presence Drives Telomere Length

But it appears that it is not only dad’s procreative genetic contribution that drives healthy telomere growth, but his daily presence and interaction with his children as a father that boosts essential chromosomal health.

A major study published in 2017 in the journal Pediatrics, drawing from a nine-year follow-up from the important Princeton University-based Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, found “at nine years of age, children with father loss have significantly shorter telomeres (14% reduction)” compared to their peers with fathers present in the home.

The authors note the various forms of fatherlessness that are negatively consequential, “Separation from a father by death, incarceration, or parental separation and/or divorce is associated with shorter telomeres in children.”

They add, “This underscores the important role of fathers in the care and development of children…” These authors clarify their finding is “consistent with previous studies.”

The last sentence of their published study is worth noting,

Overall, however, this research provides a clear biological context for the association between all forms of father loss and previously described adult health effects later in life.

Yes, fathers matter in ways the imagination can hardly consider. When fathers are not in the home, the bodies of their precious children suffer in the most intricate ways.

We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made.

Image from Shutterstock.