Like Father, Like Son

These days, the issue of masculinity—or "masculinities"—gets talked about a lot. Masculinity is often invoked in public debates on domestic and family violence and men's well-being; terms such as "toxic masculinity" and the "manosphere" are becoming part of everyday language; and polarizing commentators like Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, and Andrew Tate have rapidly risen to fame.

Regardless of people's diverse and diverging opinions on masculinity, it is clear that today's men express their maleness in different ways. While some adhere to more traditional ideas of masculinity, others embrace less traditional stances. But why is this the case? Our research focused on one important factor: fathers' masculinity.

Measuring Fathers' and Sons' Masculinities

Do young men "copy" their fathers' masculinity? To find out, we analyzed data from 839 pairs of 15-to-20-year-old teenagers and their fathers who had taken part in a large, Australian national survey—Ten to Men: The Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health.

The survey asked men 22 questions about how they felt and behaved in relation to many issues related to masculinity. For example, they were asked about:

• the significance of work and social status for their sense of identity
• their take on showing emotions and being self-reliant
• their endorsement of risk-taking and violent behaviors
• the importance they assigned to appearing heterosexual and having multiple sex partners, and
• their beliefs about winning, dominance over others, and men's power over women

The answers to these questions offered us a window into whether the men adopted more or less traditional masculinities. Critically, they also enabled us to compare fathers' and sons' masculinity expressions.

What Was Similar Between Fathers and Sons

When looking at the relationship between a father's masculinity and their son's, we took into account other factors that may shape young men's expressions of masculinity. These included their age, education, sexual orientation, religion, household income, and place of residence—to name a few.

The results were clear: there was a credible association between fathers' and sons' masculinity for most of the items they rated. Young men who scored higher on the traditional masculinity measures had fathers who also scored higher, and those who scored lower had fathers who also scored lower.

Nearly all of the 22 individual masculinity items showed the same similarity between fathers and sons. The strongest father-son associations emerged for items about the endorsement of violence, importance of appearing heterosexual, and desirability of having multiple sexual partners. An item that was not connected between them was "I never ask for help." This indicates that some aspects of masculinity are more likely than others to be passed on from fathers to sons.

Our findings are a reminder that familial social learning is important in shaping young people's attitudes and behaviors. While fathers are not the only influence, our study suggests that young men "learn" a lot about how to be a man from their dads. This is surely an intuitive finding, yet we had little empirical evidence of it until now.

Confirming that dads "pass on" their masculinity expressions to their sons has far-reaching implications. For example, it goes a long way in explaining why traditional ideas of masculinity, characterized by beliefs in male superiority and endorsement of risky or violent behavior, remain entrenched in today's society. Our study indicates that breaking this cycle requires bringing fathers into the mix. Policies, interventions, and programs aimed at promoting healthy masculinities among young people are more likely to work if they also target their dads. And, it is likely that as the young men themselves become fathers, their own children's masculinities will also be positively affected.

For Further Reading

Perales, F., Kuskoff, E., Flood, M., & King, T. (2023). Like father, like son: Empirical insights into the intergenerational continuity of masculinity ideology. Sex Roles, 88 (9-10) 399-412. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-023-01364-y

Francisco Perales is Adjunct Associate Professor at The University of Queensland. His research examines socio-economic inequalities from a life-course perspective, particularly those based on gender, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background.

Ella Kuskoff is a Research Fellow at The University of Queensland. Her research focuses on social and policy responses to inequality and disadvantage, particularly domestic violence, gender, and homelessness.

Michael Flood is a Professor in the School of Justice at Queensland University of Technology. His research agenda focuses on gender, sexuality, and interpersonal violence.

Tania King is an Associate Professor, ARC DECRA and Dame Kate Campbell Principal Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Her work broadly examines the social and structural determinants of health, with a particular interest in social and health inequalities.