Saudi children and adolescents reasoning about husband’s authority and gender roles

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Moral Development

Abstract

The authority of man plays an important role in family life in some societies (Chao & Tseng, 2008). Indeed, such authority could apply over some moral principles such as fairness, others’ welfare and rights in some societies. For example, Alsamih (2018) found that Saudi children accepted the exclusion of peers when ordered by a father.
In order to examine this authority in family context, current study examined how Saudi children and adolescents evaluate the authority of husband over wife regarding housework and childcare. age and gender differences were examined.
Methods:
participants
The participants consisted of 58 Saudi children and adolescents (18 boys; 40 girls). Thirty-one of participants were children (M=9.01, SD= .74, ranging from 8-10) and Twenty-Seven were adolescents (M=16.04, SD= .1.05, ranging from 15-17). Twenty-two of their mothers are employers and thirty-six are stay-at-home mothers.
Procedure
participants were interviewed individually for approximately 15-20 minutes. Two vignettes consisting of hypothetical stories about conflict situations between a husband and wife regarding wife work, child care and house work. The vignettes included two conditions; child care and housework. In the two vignettes, the husband asked the wife to leave work and stay at home to do housework and childcare. Participant was asked if this is ok or not-ok and why. The children’s justifications were coded using a coding system adapted from Brosn et. al(2013).
Results
A 2 (Age: children, adolescents) × 2 (Sex: boy, girl) × 2 (mom work: work, stay-at-home) × 2 (conditions: having kid, newly married couple) mixed-design ANOVA was conducted. Children were more acceptable to the husband’s order when the family has kid (M = 2.24, SD = .20) than newly married couple (M = 1.50, SD = .14), F (1, 50) = 17.74, p < .001, ηp 2 = .30. Conry-Murray and Elliot Turiel (2013) found that adolescents consider child’s needs as important factor when judge who should stay at home, they think mother is better than father.
A 2 (Age: children, adolescents) × 2 (Sex: boy, girl) × 2 (mom work: work, stay-at-home) × 2 (conditions: having kid, newly married couple) × 3 (Reason: Moral, Social conventional, Pragmatic) mixed-design ANOVA was conducted. Adolescents were more using of moral reasons (M = .43, SD = .10) than children (M = .21, SD = .10), F (1, 56) = 4.40, p < .04, ηp 2 = .10. Consistent with previous research (Conry-Murray, 2009), boys were more using of social conventional reasons (M = .44, SD = .10) than girls (M = .20, SD = .05), F (1, 56) = 6.30, p < .01, ηp 2 = .10. However, girls more invoking of moral reasons than boys.
Conclusion
This data is part of ongoing research with larger sample. However, Saudi children showed that childcare could make them more tolerant with the authority of husband over the wife. Girls more sensitive to the fairness and rights of wife than boys who focused on social reasons. The result could shade the light on the importance of educating younger generation about gender equality and woman rights in family not only in workplace.

Author

• Munirah Alsamih, King Saud University
  Presenting Author