SEXUAL PREFERENCE OF MALES: FATHERS’ PERSONAL TRAITS
Clearly, the kind of person a man happens to be will have some bearing on the way he and his son get along together and on his son’s readiness to identify with him. For example, a father who is cold or weak may not invite close relationships with his son or seem very interesting or important to identify with. In this regard, studies have described the fathers of homosexual males as passive and ineffective family members who leave major decisions to their wives.
The homosexual men tended to describe their fathers as persons who would presumably be poor objects for identification:
In addition, the homosexual respondents’ more-frequent description of their fathers as cold persons appears to be consistent with others’ theoretical expectations. It should be noted, however, that when fathers and mothers were compared, the majority of respondents of both sexual orientations reported their fathers made fewer decisions in the family, and that their fathers were not much colder than their mothers.
Our findings suggest that a father perceived as relatively cold by his son is less likely to get along well with him and offers a less-appealing figure for identification. The influence of paternal traits, however, seems limited to familial relationships; their ultimate effect on a son’s adult sexual preference is at best tenuous.
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