Parents’ Sexism, Homophobia, and Religiosity Attitudes in Relation to Children’s Gender Typicality and Felt Pressure

• In Event: Processes, correlates, and effects of gender-related stereotypes as they relate to aspects of gender identity.

Abstract

Across development, gender is one of the most salient social categories (Blakemore, Berenbaum, & Liben, 2009). Children are acutely aware of gender cues and quickly develop an understanding of culturally appropriate behaviors for boys, girls, men, and women. Perhaps the earliest gender socializers are parents, with mothers and fathers transmitting both direct and indirect messages about their children’s gendered behavior (Mesman & Groenveld, 2018). Even parents’ gender schemas have shown links with children’s gender development (Tenenbaum & Leaper, 2002), suggesting that children are aware of parents’ more subtle socialization strategies. There is also evidence that mothers and fathers may have differential impacts on their children’s gender development, but research tends to focus solely on mothers.

This research was designed to examine the role of mothers and fathers in children’s gender development. First, this research tested differences in children’s felt pressure from mothers and fathers, respectively. Second, the current study examined relations between parents’ attitudes (sexism, homophobia, and religiosity) and their children’s gender outcomes (felt pressure to conform to gender roles and own- and other-gender similarity), postulating that more traditional attitudes in parents would link to more felt pressure, more own-gender similarity, and less other-gender similarity in children.

Participants were 8- to 10-year-old children (38 self-identified as boys, 47 self-identified as girls; Mage = 9.02 years, SD = 0.84 years) and their parents (82 self-identified as women, 59 self-identified as men, 6 chose not to identify their gender; Mage = 41.57 years, SD = 5.33 years). Of the families who participated, 62 provided data from both parents and 23 provided data from only one parent. Children were interviewed about felt pressure to conform to gender roles and their self-perceived similarity to own- and other-gender groups. Parents completed surveys related to sexism, homophobia, and religiosity.

A paired-samples t-test was used to examine differences in children’s reports of felt pressure from mothers and fathers. Results showed that children experienced significantly more gender pressure from fathers compared to mothers. Next, linear regression models were conducted to test the relation between mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes and children’s felt pressure and gender typicality. Models were conducted separately for mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes. Results showed differential effects of mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes on child gender outcomes. Mothers’ homophobia was positively related to children’s felt pressure from parents, such that more homophobic attitudes yielded more felt pressure. Analyses of fathers’ attitudes revealed a more surprising pattern of results. Fathers’ religiosity was negatively associated with children’s own-gender similarity, such that more religious practices and beliefs were significantly related to less own-gender similarity. Fathers’ sexism showed a positive link with children’s other-gender similarity, such that more sexist attitudes were related to more other-gender similarity. Findings underscore the importance of measuring both mothers’ and fathers’ attitudes when studying gender development and provide evidence of the link between parents’ attitudes and children’s gender cognitions and behaviors.

Authors

• Kingsley Schroeder, Springfield College, Springfield, MA
  Presenting Author

• Lynn S Liben, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author