Abstract: The father’s influence on child’s mental development was being concerned. The study of father absence makes it possible to compare personality of children between father absent families and father present ones, from which they can find the effect of father. So it became the most popular method in the study of father’s influence. This paper summarized the main research points on father absence at present, including the effect of father absence on children’s sex role development, the effect on children’s moral development and delinquent behavior, the effect on their interpersonal problem solving skills, the effect on child’s separation-individuation development, etc. In the end, we gave some advice for future researches.

Key words: father absence, child, mental development.