Fathering And Children's Sex Role Orientation In Korea

Adolescence, Winter, 2000 by Jang-Ae Yang

From the perspective of identification theory, the father's role and the mother's role are equally important; however, they may contribute to sex role development in different ways. Regardless of the theoretical underpinnings of sex role development, "children generally imitate the behaviors of both parents. The optimal circumstance for children's sex role development is to have both involved fathers and mothers" (Biller, 1981, p. 323).

Early Research on Fathering

Children's sex role development has been the focus of empirical inquiry for many decades. Researchers assumed that fathers are significant for the appropriate sex role development of their children, and the studies in the 1940s to early 1960s assessed masculinity in fathers and in sons, and then determined how strongly the two were correlated (Lamb, 1987). Overall, this early research on fathering found that masculine fathers tend to have masculine sons (Bandura & Walters, 1959; Mussen, 1961).

Impacts of Father Absence

Most of the early conclusions regarding paternal influence on sex role development were derived from studies of father absence (Biller, 1981). For example, early researchers investigated the effects of temporary father absence due to military service in World War II. Later work focused on absences caused by divorce or death (Stevenson & Black, 1988).

It has been suggested that there is a critical period for sex role development and that father absence during this period has long-lasting negative effects. Using Bem's Sex Role Inventory, Covell and Turnbull (1982) studied the long-term effects of father absence among 89 father-absent and 84 father-present male university students. They found no significant differences in sex role identity between students who experienced early-onset father absence (before age 5) and those who experienced late-onset father absence (5 to 14 years old). They concluded that "any early deleterious effects can be overcome by young adulthood" (p. 274), challenging the notion that a critical period exists for sex role development. It may be that exposure to peers or father surrogates minimizes the effect of father absence.

Many other studies have investigated the possibility of a critical period in sex role development. According to Hetherington (1972), early separation from father was found to be more harmful than late separation. Lohr et al. (1989) inferred from their clinical observations that, during the pre-oedipal and oedipal years, loss of father through divorce has a significant effect on young girls' achievement of femininity. Lohr and colleagues stated that father absence might have negative effects on the formation of feminine identification among female children, which might result in "(1) intensified separation anxiety; (2) denial and avoidance of feelings associated with loss of father; (3) identification with the lost object; (4) object hunger for males" (pp. 356-357).

Radin (1986), in a review of the literature, concluded that the father's behavior is the primary determinant of sex role development. Santrock (1970) found that father-absent preschool boys were significantly more feminine than father-present boys, but there were no significant differences among girls. Biller (1981) also found that father absence adversely affected the sex role identification and sex typing of male children.