Psychopathology and fatherlessness in poor boys.

The study reported represents an effort to expand an earlier investigation of how psychopathology is related to fatherlessness. The sample (N=201), composed of U.S. blacks and Cuban refugees of white derivation, was controlled for the family's economic class position, ethnicity, place of residence, and for the children's age, gender, and ordinal position and matched with a control group of ""fathered'' children. Instruments used were a mini MMPI (76 items) and the Louisville Aggression Survey Schedule-1. All of the data obtained in the study were supplied by the mothers--both about themselves and their firstborn male child. No positive association between the boys' psychopathology and their fatherlessness was found. Moreover, the data seemingly indicate that poverty exerts a leveling influence that overrides the differentiating characteristics of ethnic and age grouping, family structure, father presence or absence, and liguistic and cultural heritages.