Maternal Sensitivity and Child’s Adherence to Masculinity: A 9-Year Longitudinal Study of Urban Chinese Families

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Sex, Gender

Abstract

An increasing body of literature shows that adherence to masculinity norms, including not showing emotional vulnerability, not seeking help from others, and being physically tough, is harmful for individuals’ social and psychological well-being (e.g. APA, 2018). Yet, little is known about what makes some individuals more likely to adhere to these masculinity norms than others. Drawing from attachment theory, we argue that adherence to masculinity norms stems from early caregiving quality. Attachment theory contends that if a child’s needs for support and exploration are consistently met and distress is mostly resolved through support and comfort by the primary caregiver, the child would form an expectation of effective and competent care in times of need and form a secure attachment. However, if the caregiver consistently rejects or fails to meet the child’s needs and does not resolve the child’s distress, the child would likely form a set of expectations that signaling for help is either useless or unwanted and that they must rely on themselves or other sources of security to resolve their distresses (e.g. Bowlby, 1969/1982). Because the theory predicts that children will generalize these expectations about caregivers to other intimate relationships (e.g. friendship) as they grow older, we hypothesize that parental sensitive caregiving during infancy would be associated with children’s lower levels of adherence to masculinity as they approach adolescence.

To examine the relationship between parental caregiving quality and children’s adherence to masculinity norms, we drew data from a 9-year longitudinal study of 428 urban Chinese families. Observations of 10-12 minutes mother-infant interactions (i.e. free-play, book-sharing, beads task) were recorded in a lab setting when the infants were 14-month (n=169) and 24-month old (n=282). Videos were coded by two trained and reliable coders using three 5-point scales (i.e., sensitivity, intrusiveness, positive regard; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1999; ICCs .= 80-.93). At the age of 10, children’s adherence to masculinity norms was measured with an 8-item self-report questionnaire (n=268; α = .65; Gupta et al., 2013). Higher scores in the masculinity measure indicates the child adhered to higher level of physical toughness and was less likely to show emotional vulnerability and seek help from friends. In addition, mothers’ and fathers’ beliefs about gender were assessed with a 4-item questionnaire at 24-month data collection (α = .60).

Pairwise correlations between key variables are shown in Table 1. No significant gender differences were found in maternal caregiving quality, except mothers’ intrusiveness was higher for boys at age 24 month (t(280)=2.56, p=.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that, controlling for child’s gender and parental gender beliefs, mothers’ caregiving quality at age 24 months negatively predicted children’s adherence to masculinity at age 10 years (b=-.30, SE=.07, p<.001); however, caregiving quality at 14 months was not predictive of children’s masculinity. Parental gender beliefs were also not significantly associated with children’s masculinity (b=.20, SE=.12, p=.10) after controlling for child’s gender and maternal caregiving quality. This study has important implications for intervention work on toxic masculinity.

Authors

• Rui Yang, New York University Abu Dhabi
  Presenting Author

• Yufei Gu, New York University Abu Dhabi
  Non-Presenting Author

• Theodore Waters, New York University Abu Dhabi
  Non-Presenting Author

• Niobe Way, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author