Abstract
This study investigated the relation of the father's availability to his 4-yr.-old son's problem-solving ability and sex-role orientation. The subjects were middle-class boys and their parents; 16 boys had fathers who were more available and 14 boys had fathers whose availability was relatively low. Three problem-solving measures and a sex-role orientation test were administered to the sons. The boys with the more available fathers performed better than the boys with the less available fathers on one of the problem-solving measures. Correlations between paternal availability and all three problem-solving tests were positive and significant for the group whose fathers were more available. There was no significant difference between the groups in sex-role orientation. Parental availability was associated with other measures which also related to children's scores. Data indicated that higher availability of the father is positively associated with the son's problem-solving ability, but that other factors, especially maternal ones, influence the relation.
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