Subjective Assessment of Relationships With Parents by Sexually Aggressive and Nonaggressive Men

Abstract

Data are reported from three studies that describe the development of a self-report assessment of subjects' relationships with their parents and the replication of previous findings of a link between a negative father-son relationship and the son's tendency toward sexual aggression. Factor and item analyses of the assessment instruments indicated conceptually coherent and reliable subscales. In each of the three studies, sexually aggressive men rated their relationships with their fathers as significantly more problematic than did nonaggressive men. There were no similar findings for subjects' relationships with their mothers. Results are discussed in relation to increasing evidence of the importance of factors in the home environment and delinquent behavior in the fostering of male sexual aggression.