Many people have heard or even used the term “daddy issues.” Someone may casually use the phrase, which can hurt and upset the person labeled as having daddy issues. What does this term really mean? Can someone get help if they do have daddy issues? Learn about the signs of daddy issues and how to overcome the underlying problem.

What Are Daddy Issues?

“Daddy issues” is a term often used to describe how a woman relates with men in relationships. Daddy issues are not a mental health diagnosis or clinical description used by professionals. It is a colloquial term that typically refers to a woman who appears to have unhealthy relationships with men. It suggests that these unhealthy patterns stem from unresolved or problematic dynamics in the relationship with her father. 

For many people, daddy issues have turned into a negative and insulting descriptor for someone’s behavior pattern in relationships. Someone might accuse a woman of having daddy issues to explain her choice to date older men, having sex too often or too early in a relationship or not wanting to have sex in a relationship. For many people who experience neglect, abuse and trauma in their relationship with their father, the term can minimize and make light of their experiences.

See Related: What are mommy issues?

The Psychology Behind Daddy Issues

Psychological theories can help explain some beliefs surrounding the development of daddy issues.

Sigmund Freud described his theory, The Oedipus Complex. He discussed that boys feel a sexual attraction toward their mothers, resulting in a competitive relationship with their fathers. Carl Jung expanded on this theory with the Electra Complex. The Electra Complex proposes that girls experience an attraction toward their fathers and develop a jealous or competitive relationship towards their mothers. 

John Bowlby discussed attachment theory. He theorized that children have an innate survival need to form attachments to their caregivers. Bowlby’s attachment theory describes the impact of the child’s early attachment to the primary caregiver and how an unhealthy attachment can lead to emotional, social and cognitive problems for an individual. 

Applying attachment theory to daddy issues would suggest that the quality of the attachment a woman had with her father as a child impacts how she attaches to men in her adult life. If she had an abusive, neglectful or weak attachment experience with her father, she likely would have an unhealthy attachment style with men in her adulthood. 

Do Only Women Have Daddy Issues?

Daddy issues are not limited to how a woman relates to a man. Anyone with any gender identity can experience problematic relationships and attachment styles in adulthood due to weak, neglectful or abandoned childhood caregiver relationships. Attachment wounds can stem from relationships with fathers, mothers, grandparents or anyone who filled the role of a caregiver. Although the phrase usually refers to women, attachment issues are not limited to women. 

However, people often use the term “daddy issues” in an insulting or condescending manner towards a woman to describe her behavior and attachment style in a relationship. A woman may be told she has daddy issues because she likes to date older men, refers to a sexual partner as “daddy” or engages in other sexual behaviors that do not meet societal norms. 

The term minimizes the impact of the parental relationships a woman has experienced and faults her for any relationship problems she has with men. A woman may feel judged, criticized and even traumatized when accused of having daddy issues. The woman is blamed for unhealthy relationships with men rather than identifying and exploring how the relationship with her father may have impacted her life. 

Signs of Daddy Issues

Since Daddy issues likely result from a poor attachment and relationship with a father, people usually display certain signs in adult relationships. Some of the signs include:

• Dating older men
• Ongoing need for reassurance in relationships
• Anxiety in relationships
• Fear of abandonment in relationships
• Afraid of getting too close to people in relationships
• Difficulty opening up in relationships
• Lack of trust in other people 
• People pleasing behaviors
• Jealousy
• Sensitivity to rejection
• Looking for signs that a relationship is over or a partner will end it
• Equating sex with love

The Impact of Daddy Issues

The attachment style of the caregiver-child relationship can affect the quality and health of adult relationships. Often people who have experienced insecure attachments with their caregiver(s) have insecure attachment styles with adult relationships. With daddy issues, the adult may unintentionally engage in adult relationships with a similar attachment style as experienced with the father.

If someone experienced an avoidant-attachment style relationship with a father, the father avoided an intimate relationship with the child. He may not have spent much time with the child, did not show interest in the child or was not part of the family structure. This style can lead to a person staying away from the intimate attachment of adult relationships. Because they did not experience the desired connection with the father or another caregiver, they fear intimacy in adult relationships. They feel safer avoiding intimacy despite the desire to have a relationship.

In an anxious attachment style relationship with a father or another caregiver, the child may have sometimes experienced a father who was attached and connected to the child. Yet, at other times the father seemed unavailable. It resulted in the child not knowing if the father would be available to meet their needs. As an adult, the person feels very anxious regarding relationships and worries that the partner may leave them.

When a child has a disorganized attachment with their father or caregiver, they likely experience inconsistency and even chaos in the relationship. It can result in volatile adult relationships and disjointed emotional connections with partners.

Overcoming Daddy Issues

If you notice you may have unhealthy or insecure attachment patterns in adult relationships, therapy can help you learn to seek more healthy and adaptive relationships. Through counseling, you can learn to recognize unhealthy habits, work through unresolved issues and learn healthier ways to engage in relationships. 

The Nobu app is also a resource for learning more about healthy attachment in relationships. Nobu offers several different options for support and assistance. You can access free mental health support, including learning coping skills, journaling prompts and goal setting. You can also connect to a mental health professional to help address trauma and other issues during online therapy sessions. The Nobu app is available for download on the Apple Store and the Google Play store.