Consensus about the differing characteristics of men and women exists across groups differing in sex, age, marital status, and education. Masculine characteristics are positively valued more often than feminine characteristics. Positively‐valued masculine traits form a cluster entailing competence; positively‐valued feminine traits reflect warmth‐expressiveness. Sex‐role definitions are incorporated into the self‐concepts of both men and women; moreover, these sex‐role differences are considered desirable by college students and healthy by mental health professionals. Individual differences in sex related self‐concepts are related to sex‐role relevant behaviors such as achieved and ideal family size. Sex‐role perceptions also vary as a function of maternal employment.

A sex-role Stereotype Questionnaire consisting of 122 bipolar items was given to actively functioning clinicians with one of three sets of instructions: To describe a healthy, mature, socially competent (a) adult, sex unspecified, (6) a man, or (c) a woman. It was hypothesized that clinical judgments about the characteristics of healthy individuals would differ as a function of sex of person judged, and furthermore, that these differences in clinical judgments would parallel stereotypic sex-role differences. A second hypothesis predicted that behaviors and characteristics judged healthy for an adult, sex unspecified, which are presumed to reflect an ideal standard of health, will resemble behaviors judged healthy for men, but differ from behaviors judged healthy for women. Both hypotheses were confirmed. Possible reasons for and the effects of this double standard of health are discussed.

The relationship of self-concept to differentially valued sex-role stereotypes was examined. On a questionnaire consisting of 122 bipolar items, 14 male and 80 female college students indicated what typical adult males, adult females, and they, themselves, were like. Results indicated: (a) strong agreement between sexes about differences between men and women, (b) similar differences between the self-concepts of the sexes, and (c) more frequent high valuation of stereotypically masculine than feminine characteristics in both sexes. Contrary to expectation, differentiations between self-concepts and stereotypic concepts of masculinity and femininity, as a function of social desirability, were not found.The existence of sex-role stereotypes, that is, consensual beliefs about the differing characteristics of men and women in our society, is well documented (

Social attitudes about sex roles have been implicated as important factors in population growth. Degree of incorporation of stereotypic sex roles into the self-concepts of mothers is found to be related to completed family size.

Parents play an important role in shaping behavioral and motivational outcomes in their child’s education, presumably even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic, where concomitant school closures forced students worldwide to learn remotely at home, affecting socio-economically disadvantaged students most negatively. However, it remains unclear how different parent-focused family process variables (demanding-structuring and responsive-motivational parental involvement, responsibility for learning) and structure variables (socio-economic status, immigrant background) relate to important learning-related student outcomes, namely extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and actual participation in learning activities, during emergency remote education. Using questionnaire data from N = 117 German secondary school students (Mage = 15.14, SD = 0.93; 49.6% female) with a low average socio-economic status, structural equation models revealed associations between higher parental involvement and responsibility and higher motivational and behavioral student outcomes. Furthermore, immigrant background related negatively to some parent process variables, and indirectly negatively to extrinsic motivation. These results highlight parents’ role in learning, particularly during emergency remote education.