The relationship between the quality of adult sons' experiences in their current relationships with their mothers and fathers and the sons' psychological distress was examined in a random sample of 285 sons, aged 25 to 40. Quality of experience in the son role was assessed separately for the son-mother and son-father relationships. Sons who reported a positive relationship with their mother or father also reported low psychological distress. The presence or absence of female siblings moderated the association between both the son-mother and son-father relationship quality and sons' distress. This association was also moderated by the parents' age, and, among sons with fathers, this association was moderated by the sons' education.
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