<p>The present study examines six young men’s, born in the 1980’s, experiences of their relationships with their fathers. The focus of the study lies on the son’s evaluations of their fathers’ influence on them, the men’s emotional language and the experience of the fathers’ presence versus absence. The relationship with the fathers and the fathers’ emotionality are also being discussed. The method used is semistructured interview. The interviews lasted circa 40 minutes. The results show that half of the men experienced their fathers as present during their childhoods and half, as absent. This shows a more present father than previous studies have shown. All the interviewed men feel that their fathers have influenced them in some way, either positively, negatively or both. This result differs from a previous study which shows a primarily negative influence of the father. A majority of the men experiences their fathers’ emotionality to be similar to the male stereotype. Anger is prominent, whereas sadness is a less prominet emotion of the fathers’. The results further showed that the men in the present study verbally expresses emotions mainly through distansing constructions.</p><p>Keywords: Fatherhood, Father Son relationship, men´s emotional language, men’s emotions</p>

The present study examines six young men’s, born in the 1980’s, experiences of their relationships with their fathers. The focus of the study lies on the son’s evaluations of their fathers’ influence on them, the men’s emotional language and the experience of the fathers’ presence versus absence. The relationship with the fathers and the fathers’ emotionality are also being discussed. The method used is semistructured interview. The interviews lasted circa 40 minutes. The results show that half of the men experienced their fathers as present during their childhoods and half, as absent. This shows a more present father than previous studies have shown. All the interviewed men feel that their fathers have influenced them in some way, either positively, negatively or both. This result differs from a previous study which shows a primarily negative influence of the father. A majority of the men experiences their fathers’ emotionality to be similar to the male stereotype. Anger is prominent, whereas sadness is a less prominet emotion of the fathers’. The results further showed that the men in the present study verbally expresses emotions mainly through distansing constructions. Keywords: Fatherhood, Father Son relationship, men´s emotional language, men’s emotions