Poster #183 - The Impacts of Felt Pressure, Age, and Gender on Responses to Sexism

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

Gender is one of the most prominent social categories throughout children’s development, influencing names, clothing, activities, and occupations. Thus, as children navigate their social environments, they receive frequent messages about the behaviors and characteristics deemed culturally appropriate for boys and girls. From the perspective of Developmental Intergroup Theory (DIT; Bigler & Liben, 2006), the frequency and prominence of these messages may lead children to develop stereotypes and prejudices about gender groups. Importantly, not all children experience gender-related messages in the same way – some children report feeling more pressure to conform to societal gender expectations than do other children. The current research explored whether differences in experienced gender pressure is linked to responses to observing or hearing about others’ sexist behaviors. We predicted that greater felt pressure would lead to greater permittance of sexism, with gender and age moderating that relationship.

Participants included two samples. The first involved 77 6- to 12-year-olds (52% male). The ethnic makeup of the sample was 84% White, 10% Black, and 1% Latino, with 4% not disclosing ethnicity. Children came from generally wealthy families with highly educated parents. The second included 69 undergraduate students (51% male). Participants’ self-reported ethnicities were 65% White, 8% Black, 8% Asian, 7% Latino, and 12% mixed race. Most of the sample reported being heterosexual (80%).

Both samples completed questionnaires that tapped (1) felt pressure to conform to gender roles and (2) responses to hypothetical sexist situations. The felt pressure questionnaire asked participants to report how others (i.e., parents, peers) might respond to their engagement in gender-nonconforming behaviors. Participants indicated the likely response on a 4-point scale. Participants subsequently listened to 12 scenarios, each representing a type of sexist remark, and were asked to describe what they would do in that situation. Open-ended responses were coded into one of five categories: (1) agreeing with the sexist comment, (2) ignoring the sexist comment, (3) confronting unfairness in the situation, (4) consoling the victim, and (5) confronting the sexism inherent in the comment. Responses of each type were summed for each participant to yield five total scores, each with a possible range of 1 to 12.

Negative binomial regression models tested the association between felt pressure and responses to peers’ sexist comments. Gender, age, and sample (6-12 years or undergraduate) were additional predictors. Children who felt more pressure were more likely to agree with sexist comments. Undergraduate participants were more likely than younger participants to report that they would object to the unfair nature of the situation. Females were more likely than males to console the victim of a sexist comment. For all participants, greater felt pressure predicted less confrontation of sexism. Female undergraduates were more likely than males to recognize and confront sexism. For younger participants, there was no gender difference; both males and females recognized and confronted sexism at rates comparable to undergraduate females.

In line with DIT, felt pressure impacted certain responses to sexist comments. Age and gender also impacted this relationship, however, indicating potential differences in gender prejudice development.

Authors

• Kingsley M Schroeder, Pennsylvania State University
  Presenting Author

• Lynn S Liben, Penn State
  Non-Presenting Author