The fact is that daddy issues are common to the point of cliché. Absent fathers are an unfortunately common malady in our society and I am certain that every person here has first hand knowledge of multiple people who have grown up or are growing up with an absent or distant father. This fatherhood problem is the unfortunate result of our current social climate and is a serious ill that plagues our society.

Given that this condition is so widespread and is present in great numbers across the entire spectrum of the population, I think we need to view any attempt to draw a link between that and sexual identity with extreme skepticism.

Obviously, anecdotal evidence is useless here since this is a common experience shared by countless individuals only a tiny fraction of whom are minor attracted. Likewise, taking a survey on an issue like this would be extremely difficult.

All is not lost however. The breakdown of the nuclear family is a phenomenon that occurred over time. That being the case, it should be possible to trace the increase in broken homes over the last 50+ years and compare that to any trends in the rate of child sexual abuse over the same number of years. One would expect that if there is indeed a link between absent fathers and pedophilia, as the rate of broken homes increases, the number of pedophiles created increases and thus the rate of sexual crimes against children increases. This increase should be of a statistically significant proportion, although it shouldn't occur at the same exact time, the abuse rate should lag somewhere in the 10-15 year range due to the time it takes for those future molesters to grow up, act, and get caught.

If you're still into researching the topic, try digging the numbers up and doing that comparison. It would be interesting to see what you find.

I have heard that the rate of child sexual abuse has been falling since the 80s, but haven't verified this by looking at any actual numbers. The rate of broken homes I can only guess at, but would imagine it to show a steep increase since the 60s with no peak yet. If the above proves to be the case, then I think it would be a good indication that any link between broken homes and pedophilia is highly unlikely.