Father Absence, Son's Masculinity, and Behavioral Adjustment: A New Evidence from Modern Taiwan

父親長期離家對男孩男性化程度及行為調適之影響

人類學家J.W.M.Whiting等人認為男性成年禮的產生是為了要減低在嬰兒期時因為父親長期不在家所引起的男孩對性角色認同之困難。本文提出不同的觀點，認為單單隱示的心理過程（性角色認同）不足以解釋男性成年禮，筆者認為：文化是有機的，某個社會的成年人在設計某個文化制度時，並非洞悉該社會成員的心理狀態，而是依據外顯行為的變化為主要標準，據此，在一個一夫多妻制的社會中，由於父親須在幾個妻子之間輪流居住，男孩因而缺少認同的對象，而在行為上乃產生調適不良之現象，該社會的成年男性明顯地察覺這樣的結果，因而設計出一套儀式（即成年禮）來強化他們的行為，使之成功的扮演男性之角色。為了支持這個推論，筆者在基隆安樂國中抽取82個初二學生，其父親或為遠洋船員，或非遠洋船員，以檢定父親長期離家對男孩男性化程度與行為調適之影響。經過逐步迴歸分析之結果，證實了筆者之假設：父親長期離家導致男孩過度的男性化程度及不良調適之現象，其影響力分別為16%及25.9%。筆者並認為這個結果是在青春前期，而非嬰兒期形成的。

The present paper intends to examine the relation of long-term father absence to son's degree of masculinity and adjustment difficulties among 82 eighth grade students in a fishing harbor in northern Taiwan. Through statistical analysis, it is found that the results strongly confirm the hypothese that father absence, among all the independent variables, is the most importanat factor in son's masculinity and behavioral maladjustment. It is thus suggested that the basic dynamics in the formation of male initiation ceremonies is the perception of young people's maladjustment which appears, under the circumstance of father absence, in the process of sex role learning in the pre-pubercent period, instead of the problem of cross-sex identification.