Poster #78 - How do parent and child gender relate to parental socialization about economic inequality?

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Economic inequality within the United States is at an all-time high and that affects people throughout every level of society (Stiglitz, 2012). Children’s experiences in society shape the development of prejudices and attitudes (Bigler & Liben, 2006). Parents are important socializers in that process of shaping children’s attitudes and beliefs about the world more broadly and this study examines how parents teach their children about economic inequality (Bigler & Liben, 2006).

Parent and child gender play a role in children’s socialization about a variety of social topics and this poster examines how gender relates to socialization about economic inequality. When looking at how parents socialize their children, it is important to note gender differences. Previous research has found that fathers and mothers have different spheres of influence when it comes to socializing their children (O’Bryan et al., 2004). While mothers’ implicit racial bias is a significant predictor of their children’s attitudes about race (Castelli et al., 2009), fathers play a role in gender socialization (O’Bryan et al., 2004). Research has also found that parents elicit different behaviors and language with their children, depending on the child’s gender (Tenenbaum & Leaper, 2003).

This study uses the Parent Socialization about Economic Inequality – Explicit Attributions (PSEI-EA) scale to understand how (1), parent socialization about economic inequality varies by parent and child gender and (2), how parent gender is related to the association between parents’ self-categorization of socialization and their observed socialization score on the PSEI-EA.

Method:

The sample is made up of 667 parents of children ages 6 to 11 years old, of which 371 identified as White and 296 identified as Black. Parents were from 48 states and the District of Columbia, and had varying income levels and educational backgrounds.

We measure the ways in which parents talk to and teach their children about attributions for economic inequality by using the PSEI-EA survey measure.

The PSEI-EA measure includes the following four subscales: individual attributions of poverty, individual attributions of wealth, structural economic inequality, and fatalistic attributions. Parents also self-identified their level of socialization.

Results:

Table 1 displays results for the means and standard deviations of all PSEI-EA scales by parent and child gender. Mean levels of socialization for fathers are higher than for mothers and fathers show significantly higher mean levels of socialization across all sub scales towards their sons than their daughters (α = 0.05). Mothers’ means show no significant difference for their sons and daughters. Gender differences were confirmed by t-tests.

Figure 1 shows the average overall PSEI-EA score for parents, by gender, who self-assessed their approach to PSEI. The bar graph shows only the trends for overall PSEI-EA, but similar trends are seen for all of the subscales.

Discussion:

These results indicate that parent and child gender are important elements in how parents socialize their children to think about economic inequality. Future research can include more detailed measures of gender attitudes, beliefs, and socialization behaviors to understand how they are related to socialization about economic inequality.
 

Authors

• Jennie Jasperson, Brigham Young University
  Presenting Author

• Andrea Kinghorn Busby, Brigham Young University