Father Absence, Cross-Sex Identity, and Field-Dependent Behavior in Male Adolescents

The present study investigated the effects of father absence upon cross-sex identity and field dependency in male adolescents. It was found that father-absent male adolescents were more field dependent in Witkins terms than were father-present male adolescents. It was further found that the masculinity scores of the 2 groups did not differ significantly nor were there differences in indices of cross-sex identity at least at an overt level. The findings were related to various aspects of sex-role identification and their implications were discussed. (authors)