Mothers’ Gender Beliefs Matter for Adolescents’ Academic Achievement and Engagement: An Examination of Ethnically Diverse U.S. Mothers and Adolescents

McFadden, Karen E.; Puzio, Angelica; Way, Niobe; Hughes, Diane

doi:10.1007/s11199-020-01157-7

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Although the particular processes explaining this suppressor effect are unclear, this result suggests that these two facets of masculine gender role stereotypes (i.e., status-seeking and antifemininity) did not additively contribute to predicting boys' aspirations toward language fields. Nonetheless, such results are particularly informative as they go beyond previous work using more general measures of gender normative stereotypes (Croft et al, 2014;McFadden et al, 2020) and indicate that different facets of gender role beliefs might have distinct implications for boys' motivation and career aspirations in different domains.…”

Section: Understanding Career Aspirations For Boys and Girlsmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…Such inconsistencies might be the result of differences in how gender role stereotypes relate to different school domains. For instance, McFadden et al (2020) observed that parental gender role beliefs were more predictive of outcomes in mathematics than language arts. Although these researchers attributed their results to relatively stronger cultural mathematics than language arts ability stereotypes, such an interpretation is inconsistent with findings showing the reverse pattern (e.g., Plante et al, 2019).…”

Section: Parents As Transmitters Of Gender Stereotypesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Parents’ Stereotypical Beliefs Relate to Students’ Motivation and Career Aspirations in Mathematics and Language Arts

Chaffee

Plante

2022

Front. Psychol.

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Despite progress, gender gaps persist in mathematical and language-related fields, and gender stereotypes likely play a role. The current study examines the relations between parents’ gender-related beliefs and their adolescent child’s motivation and career aspirations through a survey of 172 parent-child dyads. Parents reported their gendered beliefs about ability in mathematics and language arts, as well as their prescriptive gender role beliefs. Students reported their expectancies and values in these two domains, as well as their career aspirations The results of path models suggested that parents’ ability stereotypes about language boosted girls’ motivation for language arts, thereby nudging them away from STEM pathways. Girls’ career aspirations stemmed not only from their valuation of the corresponding domain, but also from their valuation of competing domains. Such findings highlight the need to consider multiple domains simultaneously in order to better capture the complexity of girls’ career decisions. For boys, parents’ language ability stereotypes were directly related to mathematical career aspirations. These results suggest that stereotypes that language arts is not for boys push them instead toward mathematics. Our study also highlighted the unique role of parental beliefs in traditional gender roles for boys’ motivation and career aspirations. Specifically, parents’ gender role stereotypes directly related to less interest in language arts only among boys. This highlights that research into gender gaps in female-dominated fields should consider stereotypes related to appropriate behavior and social roles for boys.

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Section: Understanding Career Aspirations For Boys and Girlsmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Parents As Transmitters Of Gender Stereotypesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Parents’ Stereotypical Beliefs Relate to Students’ Motivation and Career Aspirations in Mathematics and Language Arts

Chaffee

Plante

2022

Front. Psychol.

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“…Given recent research on self‐perception on the way in which social categories intersect with gender (see Parker et al., 2020), we also consider if these factors interact with gender in predicting parental judgments. For example, some research shows that parents from ethnic minority backgrounds hold more traditional gender stereotypes about their children (McFadden et al., 2020).…”

Section: Maternal Judgments Of Child Performance and Objective Child ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Parents’ gender stereotype beliefs can influence children from a very young age by, for example, the way that parents police the play of their children (McFadden, Puzio, Way, & Hughes, 2020; Robnett, Daniels, & Leaper, 2018). Parents’ stereotypical beliefs have implications that extend beyond infancy with evidence suggesting they influence children's achievement and later attainment by encouraging academic pursuits that are consistent with stereotypical gender roles (McFadden et al., 2020; Muenks, Peterson, Green, Kolvoord, & Uttal, 2020; Pinquart & Ebeling, 2019; Robnett et al., 2018). The influence of parents’ gender schemas may be more influential in childhood and adolescence than in infancy (Leaper, 2013).…”

Section: Maternal Judgments Of Child Performance and Objective Child ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal Judgments of Child Numeracy and Reading Ability Predict Gains in Academic Achievement and Interest

et al. 2021

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In a representative longitudinal sample of 2,602 Australian children (52% boys; 2% Indigenous; 13% language other than English background; 22% of Mothers born overseas; and 65% Urban) and their mothers (first surveyed in 2003), this article examined if maternal judgments of numeracy and reading ability varied by child demographics and influenced achievement and interest gains. We linked survey data to administrative data of national standardized tests in Year 3, 5, and 7 and found that maternal judgments followed gender stereotype patterns, favoring girls in reading and boys in numeracy. Maternal judgments were more positive for children from non-English speaking backgrounds. Maternal judgments predicted gains in children's achievement (consistently) and academic interest (generally) including during the transition to high school.

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Mr. Active and Little Miss Passive? The Transmission and Existence of Gender Stereotypes in Children’s Books

Pownall

Heflick

2023

Sex Roles

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Do popular children’s books tend to reflect gender stereotypes, and do parents prefer their daughters to read books reflecting this pattern? We explored these research questions using the popular Roger Hargreaves’ Mr. Men and Little Miss collection of children’s storybooks, which is a series of individual stories all titled with and based on a binarized gendered character (e.g., Mr. Greedy, Little Miss Sunshine). Using a deductive content analysis approach, Study 1 revealed that the characters in the series’ 81 books tend to behave in gender stereotypical ways, with male characters more adventurous and active and female characters more domestic and passive. Books that had female leads were also more likely to have male secondary characters. In Study 2, participants rated the masculinity/femininity and positivity/negativity of the traits of each of the book series’ titular main characters without knowing the (gendered) book title. The traits used in Little Miss stories were associated with femininity, and the Mr Men story traits with masculinity. In Study 3, when faced with the prospect of selecting a Little Miss book to read to their daughter, parents preferred counter-stereotypical book choices (e.g., Little Miss Brainy). Perceived consistency with what parents wanted to teach their daughters about women predicted this book choice. Overall, although these books tended to reflect traditional gender stereotypes (Studies 1, 2), and people held these beliefs (Study 3), we found that parents wanted a counter-stereotypical book for their daughter. Implications for the transmission of gender stereotypes via children’s literature and parental choices are discussed.

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Mothers’ Gender Beliefs Matter for Adolescents’ Academic Achievement and Engagement: An Examination of Ethnically Diverse U.S. Mothers and Adolescents

Cited by 7 publications

References 71 publications

How Parents’ Stereotypical Beliefs Relate to Students’ Motivation and Career Aspirations in Mathematics and Language Arts

How Parents’ Stereotypical Beliefs Relate to Students’ Motivation and Career Aspirations in Mathematics and Language Arts

Maternal Judgments of Child Numeracy and Reading Ability Predict Gains in Academic Achievement and Interest

Mr. Active and Little Miss Passive? The Transmission and Existence of Gender Stereotypes in Children’s Books

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