Gender development: gender stereotypes and family influences Flashcards
What is the development of gender stereotype preferences?
3 years = Gender-based preferences emerge (Huston, 1983)
4-5 years old = children avoid other-sex toys
Boys’ masculine preferences increase with age (Archer,
1992: ‘avoidance of femininity’)
Gender boundary maintenance’ (Sroufe, Bennett, & Best, 1993) = gender group boundaries are maintained. Boys are more likely to initiate + maintain group boundaries than girls
What do studies show about the development of gender stereotypes towards feminine preferences?
Boys’ masculine preferences increase with age (Archer,
1992: ‘avoidance of femininity’)
Girls’ feminine preferences increase until 5/6 years,
then they show less interest in feminine activities, and increasing interest in masculine activities
Boys avoid feminine activities to a greater extent than girls avoid masculine activities
Levy et al (1995): both boys and girls viewed boys with feminine preferences more negatively than girls with masculine preferences
How do children’s knowledge towards gender-stereotypes develop?
Children learn stereotypes very early = 3yrs + know stereotypes abt objects + activities (Huston, 1983)
Stereotypes about personality traits = 5-year-olds think boys = independent, aggressive, and assertive than girls, + girls = dependent, emotional, and submissive than
boys)
Stereotypes about activities and occupations
increases between 3-5 years. Ceiling levels are
typically reached by 7 years old
How influential is family in developing gender-stereotypes?
Parents key socialisation agents in their children’s
gender development
Siblings
Why is there such mixed evidence for a relationship between parent variables and their children’s gender-typing?
Parents = not the only influence in children’s lives e.g school
Studies = asking diff. focus questions e.g gendered understanding vs how different are boys/girls across activities and why.
Supported by Trautner (1996) = researchers don’t distinguish between factors that are responsible for producing differences between boys and girls/ causing developmental changes shared by boys
Do parents treat sons and daughters differently?
Wills et al (1976) = parents smiled more at 6-month-old ‘Beth’ + more likely to give ‘her’ a doll to play with than ‘Adam’
What does Rubin et al.’s study show (1974)?
New parents (particularly dads) described their babies
stereotypically, despite no real differences in birth
weight etc.
Girls described as more delicate + finer featured. Boys described as heavier, stronger, larger featured
What does Fagot’s (1978) study show?
Girls encouraged to dance, playing with dolls etc, but discouraged from physical sports etc.
Boys encouraged to play with trucks,
building blocks etc., but discouraged from playing
with dolls, or engaging in ‘feminine’ activities
Name evidence that parental influences to gender-stereotypes is mixed
Maccoby & Jacklin (1974) meta-analysis =
no evidence of sex diff. for parental influence. Very little diff. between how parents socialised their sons and daughters (based largely on mothers)
Lytton & Romney (1991), meta analysis = no reliable diff. gender only activities parents encouraged sons and daughters to do (included fathers). Age of child
= crucial variable in the extent of parental influence
How do parents influence their children’’s s
activities?
Parents’ beliefs + stereotypes = children’s gender-role socialisation by influencing:
(i) the goals & expectations= for their children
(ii) how they perceive their children’s interests
(iii) how they interact with their children
What happened in Eccles (2005) longitudinal research on gender-role socialisation show?
Expectancy Value Theory
Theoretical model = how gender is linked to parents’ beliefs, + how its linked to children’s involvement in, and competence beliefs about, different activities
Parents’ gender-role beliefs affect judgements = children’s competence in stereotyped activity domains
Judgements affect parents’ expectations abt children’s future performance
These expectations affect types of opportunities parents give their children
What happened in Eccles (2005) longitudinal research on gender-role socialisation show?
Expectancy Value Theory
Theoretical model = how gender is linked to parents’ beliefs, + how its linked to children’s involvement in, and competence beliefs about, different activities
Parents’ gender-role beliefs affect judgements = children’s competence in stereotyped activity domains
Judgements affect parents’ expectations abt children’s future performance
These expectations affect types of opportunities parents give their children
What happened in Michigan’s study of childhood and beyond?
Longitudinal study = 600 children.
Differences in parents’ ratings of sons’ +
daughters’ competence and interest in activity domains
Daughters = more competent + interested in English than sports + more talented in instrumental music (even though few children actually played instruments!)
Sons = more competent and interested in sports than English
What does Lee and Eccles (1998) show about parent’s beliefs of competency?
Yee and Eccles (1998):
Parents of boys = natural talent as more important reason for maths success than effort. Parents Of girls = effort as more important reason for maths success than natural talent
What does research say about lone-mother families?
Fathers are often thought = unique influence on children’s gender-role development (e.g., Block, 1976) BUT, father absence = little difference
Stevenson & Black (1988) = meta-analysis comparing father-present and father-absent families.
Preschoolers in father-absent families = less stereotyped BUT older boys in father-absent families = more stereotyped
Effect size varied with SES, age, reason for father absence
But, father-absent families = heterogeneous group
What does Stevens et al. (2002) study do?
A study of 14,000 mothers and children since early pregnancy.
@ 3½ year-olds = 6420 intact, two-parent families + 283 lone-mother families (no resident male partner since 12mths.
Subdivided groups = child had contact with father vs NO contact w/ dad since 12 months old
Results = No differences in gender-role behaviour between lone-mother families with/without contact, and two-parent families
What are the role of siblings in stereotyping?
Social learning + cognitive theories = consistent w/
children being influenced by having same-/ other-sex siblings.
Siblings = more salient and relevant potential role model.
For example, siblings = examples of gender-related behaviour which develop gender-schemas + can be reinforcers of gender-related behaviour
What happened in Golombok et al. (2000) study?
3yrs old w/ older sibling = 527 boys w/ older sister, 582 girls w/ older sister, 500 girls w/ older brother, 1665 girls & 1707 boys w/out siblings
Sex of older sibling = associated with gender-role behaviour of the younger sibling
Boys + girls w/ older same-sex siblings = more gender-typed than children with other-sex siblings
Having an older brother = associated w/ more masculine
behaviour + less feminine behaviour for both genders
Boys w/ an older sister = more feminine but not less masculine
Girls + older sister were less masculine but not more feminine
What is a criticism of Golombok et al.’s (2000) study?
It is very crude measure of gender stereotypes.
What happened in McHale et al. (2001) study?
Longitudinal study of sibling (2 siblings, mean ages 10 years 9 months, and 8 years 3 months) and parental influence
Findings:
Second-born siblings = greater evidence for sibling influences than for parent influences.
First-born siblings’ gender qualities in Year 1 of study = predicted gender-role attitudes, personality characteristics and interests of second-born sibling in Year 3 of study, even when controlling for parent influences.
H/E For first-born siblings = more evidence of parental influence + less evidence of sibling influence compared to the second-born sibling), i.e., first-born siblings become increasingly less like their siblings (de-identification process of sibling influence)
