University of Missouri anthropologist Mary Shenk interviewed 403 older men and women of Bangalore about their families and examined the effects of death on their 1,112 children.
The death of the father before a child reached 25 years old correlated with lower educational achievement, younger ages at marriage and smaller income later in life.
However, the effects were significantly smaller for children who lost their fathers when they were younger than five years old or older than 20. Older children and adolescents between 11 and 15 years of age showed the largest decrease in later success.
"Certain negative effects of a father's death can't be compensated for by the mother or other relatives," said Shenk.
"The loss of a father can result in lower adult living standards for the bereaved children. Not only is a child emotionally affected, but the lack of a father's earning power can cause children to get married younger or drop out of school in order to work," Shenk said in a statement.
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Recognising the importance of fathers to adolescents could lead to improvements in aid programmes for youths who have lost their fathers, Shenk believes.
"Earlier studies have focused on how the absence or death of a father affects children in the United States and other wealthier parts of the world. Our study looked at the developing world where father death is much more common," Shenk said.
"For young children who lose their fathers, other factors can take over to compensate. Infants and young children often don't remember their lost fathers, and in many cases another family member may step in to care for them. Also, since young children are not yet in school, their educations don't suffer as much," Shank said.
The study was published in the Journal of Biosocial Science.
