Parent socialization of gender attitudes among ethnically and geographically diverse young children

• In Event: The role of parents and environments in shaping the children's gendered attitudes and cognition

Abstract

The way we feel towards different gender groups color our interactions with members of those groups. However, surprisingly little work has investigated the factors that shape individual differences in early gender attitudes. Using a large preregistered study (total N = 689), we investigate whether parent socialization shapes children’s gender intergroup attitudes and behaviors in a sample of Asian, Black, Latinx, White, and Multiracial 4- to 6-year-old children from five geographical regions within the U.S. (Honolulu, HI; Long Beach, CA; Seattle, WA; New Haven, CT; and Durham, NC). We took advantage of the unique diversity in our sample to test for variation in parent gender socialization by child gender and ethnic background.

One question in the present work concerned the possible impact of parents' modeling of gender-based inequality in the home on children's own understanding of gender-based status hierarchies. For children living in heterosexual two-parent families (N = 427), we found that the more housework women do in comparison to men, the greater their children’s awareness of men’s higher social status than women’s (ß = -.379, p = .045). Moreover, the consequences of household labor inequality was associated with the greater likelihood of boys (simple main effect ß = .137, p = .031) but not girls (simple main effect ß = -.047, p = .476) saying men were “in charge” over women (see Fig. 1).

We were also curious about how children from different gender and enthic backgrounds experience variation in parent socialization. We found significant differences in socialization of boys and girls (p < .0001) such that parents reported talking with girls more than boys about both gender bias (p = .017) and gender egalitarianism (p = .046). Regarding variation by ethnicity, we found that Latiné American parents conveyed messages about gender egalitarianism more frequently than did Asian American parents (p = .016).

In addition to parent socialization, we also examine whether self-socialization (that is, the extent to which parents reported that their children pay attention to and seek out information about gender) predicts children’s gender attitudes and behaviors. We found that children with higher levels of self-socialization were more likely to allocate resources to children of their same gender over children of other genders (ß = .273, p < .001). Also, boys whose parents reported higher self-socialization showed greater awareness of the gender status hierarchy compared to boys whose parents reported lower self-socialization (ß = -.543, p < .001). Discussion will focus on how the use of parent report in measurement of children’s self-socialization may color our interpretation of our findings around self-socialization.

In sum, we found that both self- and parent socialization processes may play a role in shaping how gender influences children as they navigate their social worlds. Our data suggest that behavioral modeling around gender equality (through the division of household labor) may have an important impact on boys’ gender attitudes. Discussion will focus on the role of behavioral modeling, variation in explicit teaching between children of different genders and ethnicities, and the dual nature of parent and children’s motivations in shaping gender attitudes in early childhood.

Authors

• Stats Atwood
  Presenting Author

• May Ling Halim, California State University - Long Beach

• Alisha Osornio

• Kristin J.M.B. Pauker, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

• Yarrow C Dunham, Yale University

• Kristina R Olson, Princeton University

• Sarah Elizabeth Gaither, Duke Univeristy