Gender double standards in parenting attitudes

Abstract

This paper investigates the double standard in attitudes toward courtship and family formation behaviors of sons and daughters. We argue there are strong theoretical reasons to expect that the magnitude of this double standard varies across substantive domains, as well as amongst parents and non-parents. We also argue key methodological limitations of previous studies likely produce an under-estimate of the gender double standard. We provide empirical estimates of the gender double standard that overcome these limitations, including a random assignment experiment explicitly designed to control the effects of social desirability. These estimates demonstrate variability in the double standard across domains and reveal key factors contributing to the magnitude of the double standards in parenting attitudes held by individuals.

Early Adolescent Romantic Relationships and Maternal Approval among Inner City Latino Families

“…Our data also documented a fairly consistent double standard for Latino girls and boys, with mothers being more approving of boys being in romantic relationships and engaging in intimate behaviors in those relationships. Our findings add to previous research documenting gender differences in parental, adolescent and societal attitudes about adolescent dating and sexual behavior, with girls endorsing and experiencing more conservative attitudes and behaviors [61,62]. A recent meta-analysis of gender differences in sexuality indicated that gender disparities in the embracement of a sexual double standard may diminish as youth become older [62], suggesting that adolescence may be an optimal time to intervene.…”

Age at migration, family instability, and timing of sexual onset

“…Prior research has separately examined gender differences in norms of sexual behavior (Crawford and Popp 2003), parental control (Axinn, Young-DeMarco, and Ro 2011), and the consequences of parental union instability (Cooper et al 2011), but not in associations between migration background and sexual debut. Gender-based differences in norms, behaviors, and social control are often greater among immigrants than non-immigrants (Lopez-Gonzalez, Aravena, and Hummer 2005; Suárez-Orozco and Qin 2006).…”

“…Because normative expectations related to sexual activity often differ for women and men, the association between nativity and sexual debut also may differ by sex. Gender double standards influence parenting attitudes and practices in immigrant and non-immigrant families in the United States, but there is some evidence that this influence is strongest in immigrant families (Axinn et al 2011; Espiritu 2001). Several studies show that U.S. immigrant families place much stricter control over their daughters’ compared with their sons’ activities—particularly behaviors related to dating and heterosexual relationships (Espiritu 2001; Suárez-Orozco and Qin 2006).…”

Resilience of the Childhood Origins of Dutch Mothers’ Gender Role Attitudes

“…Over the last half of the twentieth century social research documented wide spread changes in attitudes about the appropriate social roles for men and women (Sullivan 2004), uniformly toward more gender egalitarian attitudes (Axinn et al 2011). The parents (especially the mothers) of the respondents of this study to a certain extent already paved the way for their daughters, while opening alternative scripts of behaviour to the traditional stay-at-home option once their daughter became a mother herself.…”