40 families participated in a study in which boys were reinforced by their mothers, fathers and a peer. The boys were also rated on a 48 item rating scale by the mother, father and the teacher. The general hypothesis tested was that the occurence of deviant behaviors covaries with selective responsiveness to social reinforcers dispensed by various social agents. The first hypothesis stated that deviant behaviors would most likely characterize boys who were responsive toonly a limited set of social agents. For example, the boy whgo is responsive to only reinforcers dispensed by women would likely fail to acquire the social behaviors which are ordinarily learned in the socializing interactions with peers and mens. The data provided modest support for the hypothesis that selective non-responsiveness to like sexed agents was associated with deviant behaviors. Boys who were responsive only to social reinforcers dispensed by their mothers were described as nervous, tense, unsociable, and distrustful. These findings suggest that the acquisition of adaptive behaviors for boys is partially a function of their being responsive to the socializing influence of MALE social agents.