The Role of Communal Values in Children’s Gender Stereotypical Role Preferences

• In Event: Developmental Roots and Predictors of Career Aspirations and Disparities

Abstract

Communion (i.e., a focus on caring for and connecting with others) and agency (i.e., a focus on self-interest) are often described as core human values. In adults, men tend to report valuing communion less, and agency more, than women do—a difference that reliably predicts gendered role preferences, underscoring the importance of uncovering the origins and consequences of early gender differences in communal values.

In this talk, we first discuss evidence that early gender differences in values are meaningful and guide children’s gender stereotypical aspirations. In addition, we present novel findings that boys’ internalization of communal values in particular might itself be linked to widespread gender stereotypes that tend to portray males as less communal than females.

In a large sample of 411 children aged 6 to 14, Study 1 finds early gender differences in communal and agentic values. Across our age range, boys endorsed communal values less, and agentic values more, than did girls. Importantly, these gender differences in values partially accounted for boys’ relatively lower family-orientation; to the extent that boys tended to value communal values less (and agentic values more), they also tended to envision their future as less focused on family life and more focused on their career (see Figure 1). Given how early gender differences in values are linked to gendered aspirations for the future, this evidence highlights the importance of understanding factors that might perpetuate early gender differences in values.

Since past evidence suggests that gender stereotypes can constrain children’s interests in non-stereotypical activities (e.g., girls’ interest in science), Studies 2 and 3 examined the emergence of gender stereotypes about communion and agency as a possible factor constraining these values. In a sample of 76 boys and 92 girls aged 4 to 8, Study 2 found that both boys and girls showed evidence of explicit “communal=girl” and “agentic=boy” stereotypes by age 6 (but not before). Study 3 (211 boys aged 4 to 11) suggests that older boys’ (7-11), but not younger boys’ (4-6), explicit stereotypes about communion predicted their own communal values and preferences (See Figure 2). Specifically, the more strongly older boys endorsed gender stereotypes portraying girls as especially communal, the less these boys themselves reported valuing communion and wanting to play a video game involving communal tasks.

The findings we report here highlight that meaningful gender differences in core values emerge early and are linked to the emergence of gender stereotypes around age 6. Notably, such gender differences in values predict children’s expectations of gender stereotypical family roles well before they make decisions about adult roles in their families. Taken together, the evidence we provide here underscores that early elementary school is a critical period during which children start exhibiting detrimental stereotypes that could lead to important gender differences in values, with downstream consequences for gender differences in family- vs. career-aspirations. These insights can be utilized to inform interventions seeking to encourage non-stereotypical aspirations in boys and girls, possibly through addressing children’s underlying stereotypes and core values.

Authors

• Katharina Block, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Antonya Gonzalez, Western Washington University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Toni Schmader, University of British Columbia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andrei Cimpian, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andrew Scott Baron, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Non-Presenting Author