ABSTRACT
Father-daughter relationships should receive more attention in family studies courses. A review of the literature shows that fathers have a lifelong impact on their daughters, yet receive too little attention from educators, mental health and social service workers, and researchers. Especially in families where the parents are unhappily married or divorced, father-daughter relationships need more attention from professionals working with families. By offering a course on Fathers and Daughters similar to the one described in this article, faculty can help students recognize their own biases and misconceptions about fathers, become familiar with recent research and its practical applications in working with fathers and daughters, and often create more meaningful relationships with their own fathers. This college course incorporates a unique variety of teaching techniques: student interviews with their fathers, the completion of more than fifty self-assessment questionnaires, tests that require application of research, critiques of Web sites, and assigned questions that encourage more focused class discussions.
