As predicted by our next hypothesis, adolescent gender moderated the associations between father-adolescent involvement and adolescent outcomes but in sometimes unexpected ways. Specifically, the frequency of father-adolescent involvement as well as father discipline showed larger associations with adolescent-reported outcomes among males. On the other hand, fathers’ acceptance, rejection, and monitoring showed larger associations with adolescent-reported outcomes among females. The fact that this moderation appears only for adolescent-reported outcomes may suggest that at this point in development, adolescent reports are especially sensitive to gender related differences. The pattern of these gender differences suggest that statements regarding the greater salience of fathering for boys rather than girls may be too global. Instead, these results suggest a more nuanced perspective, with girls being more sensitive to fathers’ affect, and boys being more sensitive to discipline, interactions, and shared activities with father. This is consistent with the view that girls are more attuned to affective aspects of interpersonal relationships while boys are more instrumentally inclined (Golombok & Fivush, 1994). Finally, this finding supports the Doherty et al. (1998) model that recognizes the importance of child characteristics, such as adolescent gender, that is linked to variations in the father-adolescent relationship.
