Values in Adolescent Males and Father-Son Relations

The role of the father in the transmission of values to adolescent sons has often been either misrepresented or neglected in the various media. Four special factors for fathers in value development are discussed: the model of masculine behavior, the communicator (listening to different views and offering a problem-solving methodology), the moral model (striving to live somewhere between the absolutist and the complete relativist), and the fallible reinforcing agent.