Masculinity-femininity in fathers of creative male adolescents

This study investigated the relationship of paternal masculinity-femininity to filial creativity in a sample of high school students and their fathers. Thirty-one male high school students were identified as creative on the basis of teacher nominations and scores on the Remote Associates Test. An equal size control group of students matched on sex, educational level, grade point average, and geographical residence was formed. Fathers of both experimental and control students were administered a battery of tests which included a variety of masculinity-femininity measures. The results seem to support the general hypothesis that creativity is related to parental identification as a function of a less conventional sex-role stereotype, and the more specific hypothesis that there is a relation between paternal masculinity-femininity and filial creativity.