Parents’ Gender Ideology and Gendered Behavior as Predictors of Children’s Gender-Role Attitudes: A Longitudinal Exploration

Abstract

The current study utilized longitudinal, self-report data from a sample of 109 dual-earner, working-class couples and their 6-year-old children living in the northeastern United States. Research questions addressed the roles of parents’ gender ideology and gendered behaviors in predicting children’s development of gender-role attitudes. It was hypothesized that parents' behavior would be more influential than their ideology in the development of their children's attitudes about gender roles. Parents responded to questionnaires assessing their global beliefs about women's and men's "rightful" roles in society, work preferences for mothers, division of household and childcare tasks, division of paid work hours, and job traditionality. These data were collected at multiple time points across the first year of parenthood, and during a 6-year follow-up. At the final time point, children completed the Sex Roles Learning Inventory (SERLI), an interactive measure that assesses gender-role attitudes. Overall, mothers’ and fathers’ behaviors were better predictors of children’s gender-role attitudes than parents’ ideology. In addition, mothers and fathers played unique roles in their sons’ and daughters’ acquisition of knowledge about gender stereotypes. Findings from the current study fill gaps in the literature on children’s gender development in the family context—particularly by examining the understudied role of fathers in children’s acquisition of knowledge regarding gender stereotypes and through its longitudinal exploration of the relationship between parents’ gender ideologies, parents’ gendered behaviors, and children’s gender-role attitudes.

Parents’ Judgments about the Desirability of Toys for Their Children: Associations with Gender Role Attitudes, Gender-typing of Toys, and Demographics

“…Although research shows that parents’ behaviors do not always accurately reflect their attitudes (Halpern and Perry-Jenkins 2015; Perry-Jenkins and Crouter 1990), it is well known that parents’ gender-related attitudes are related to children’s gender-related cognitions (see meta-analyses by Degner and Dalege 2013 and Tenenbaum and Leaper 2002). Despite parents’ important role in shaping their children’s toy preferences and playing behavior, there is little research on the relationship between different aspects of parents’ attitudes and behaviors regarding toys and gender, namely their judgements about the desirability of different toys for their children, their gender-typing of toys, and their gender role attitudes (i.e.…”

Gender-typed behavior over time in children with lesbian, gay, and heterosexual parents.

“…This finding held up across family types, suggesting the possibility that, as they grow older, boys face stronger – and increasingly intense – pressure to conform to gender norms, regardless of family structure. Some prior work has assessed gender development in a variety of ways, examining appearance (Halim et al, 2013), play (Halim et al, 2013), attitudes (Halpern & Perry-Jenkins, 2015), and career aspirations (Williams, Radin, & Allegro, 1992). This work has found that patterns of stability and change may vary by domain (Halim et al, 2013), suggesting that a multidimensional measure of gender-typed behavior (e.g., that assesses play, attitudes, and peer group preferences) may have detected changes in girls’ gender-typed behavior as well.…”

Feminist Perspectives on Family Relationships: Part 2

“…The remaining three articles in this issue report on studies using quantitative approaches to answer questions regarding gender and families considering a variety of individual and social variables (Henderson et al 2016), across different countries (Treas and Tai 2016), and across time periods (Halpern and Perry-Jenkins 2016). A methodological highlight of the quantitative studies included in Part 2 are the characteristics of the datasets used.…”

“…Here the reader can find a test of classical gender structuration theory (Treas and Tai 2016), a feminist perspective on gender development in childhood (Halpern and Perry-Jenkins 2016), a feminist sociological lens (Henderson et al 2016), and a feminist social constructionist perspective (Swenson and Zvonkovic 2016). The reader can also find contemporary feminist theories influenced by globalization (Fulu and Miedema 2016).…”

“…For example, in the article by Halpern and Perry-Jenkins (2016), the authors use social cognitive theory to frame their hypotheses about how parents' ideologies and behaviors influence their children's attitudes. At the same time, they use intersectionality to contextualize their hypotheses related to gender (gender ideology, gender behaviors, and gender-role attitudes) within the experiences of working-class families in U.S. society.…”