A developmental study of the effects of sex of the dominant parent on sex-role preference, identification, and imitation in children.

Abstract

Investigated the effects of sex of the dominant parent on sex-role preferences, parent-child similarity, and the child's imitation of the parent in 3 age groups. Parental dominance was found to facilitate imitation in both boys and girls. Maternal dominance was related to disruption in the formation of masculine sex-role preferences in boys and low father-son similarity. Parental dominance had little effect on sex-role preferences in girls or in mother-daughter similarity, but paternal dominance was related to increased father-daughter similarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)