Social learning theory maintains that parents incluence sex development by modeling and reinforcing masculinity and femininity. To further examine the effects of parental modeling and reinforcement antecedents on sex role development, 103 college students (52 female, 51 male) who had been previously categorized as masculine, feminine, or androgynous, completed two Bem Sex Role Inventory Scales (BSRI), to assess perceptions of parents' sex roles, and the Parent Child Relations Questionnaire II, to obtain retrospective reports of parent behavior in terms of love, attention, casualness, rejection, and demand. Parents (N=82) also completed the BSRI. An analysis of the results showed that for both the parental modeling and behavior variables the social learning theory was only modestly supported for females. While androgynous females perceived mothers to be more masculine than traditional feminine females, none of the parent behavior variables differentiated among the female sex role groups. However, parent behaviors contributed significantly to the prediction of daughters' masculinity and femininity. Masculinity in females was associated with the perception of accepting and masculine fathers, and attentive and masculine mothers. Femininity was best predicted from the perceived femininity and attentiveness of mothers and the perceived femininity and acceptance of fathers. In males, parent behavior was most influential in sex role development, particularly for sons' androgynous development. Androgynous males perceived both parents as loving and attentive and perceived a high degree of femininity in fathers. The best predictors of masculinity for males were the perception of paternal acceptance and maternal affection; femininity was best predicted from the perception of femininity in fathers and affection from mothers. (BL)