Depressive mood in male college students. Father-son interactional patterns

This study was designed to investigate the interrelationship of sets of paternal and adolescent factors in explaining depressive mood in normal male adolescents. Two hundred forty-six male college students and their fathers were administered separate, written questionnaires assessing the personality attributes of both fathers and sons and the socialization practices of the fathers. Results of regression analyses indicated that of three hypothesized models (independent, mediational, interdependent) the mediational model was consistent with the data. Thus, we found that the father's personality attributes and his socialization techniques are related to the son's personality, which, in turn, is related to the son's depressive mood. In addition, certain personality attributes of the son interacted synergistically with those of his father to produce more frequent reports of depressive mood in the son.