Development of Gender Attitude Traditionality Across Middle Childhood and Adolescence

Abstract

The development of gender attitudes in 402 youth (201 firstborn and 201 secondborn siblings) in 201 European American families was examined using data collected on seven occasions across 9 years. Pooling across siblings and using multilevel modeling, we examined gender attitude development from ages 7 to 19. Consistent with an ecological perspective, the combined effects of individual (i.e., sex, age, birth order) and contextual (i.e., parents' gender attitudes, sibling sex) characteristics predicted patterns of change. Although most youth declined in traditionality, the attitudes of firstborn boys with brothers and traditional parents became more traditional over time. No one longitudinal pattern captured the development of gender attitudes; trajectories varied as a function of contextual and personal characteristics.

The Relationship Between Youngsters’ Gender Role Attitudes and Individual, Home, and School Characteristics

“…Different researchers identify this as a weakness and advise longitudinal future research (Ahrens & O'Brien, 1996;Burt & Scott, 2002;Davis & Wills, 2010;Erarslan & Rankin, 2013;Marks et al, 2009;Nelson & Keith, 1990;Zulich, 1986). The results of the few longitudinal studies focusing on these developmental aspects and change of GRA over time support the above described importance of the individuals' own life experiences (Crouter et al, 2007;Fan & Marini, 2000;Tallichet & Willits, 1986) and schooling (Davis, 2007;Fan & Marini, 2000;Tallichet & Willits, 1986;Williams, Radin, & Allegro, 1992). Therefore, the use of longitudinal data in analyzing GRA is recommended.…”

“…One finding that is recurrent in western and non-western countries is that male respondents are generally more traditional minded than their female counterparts (Burt & Scott, 2002;Carlson & Knoester, 2011;Crouter et al, 2007;Davis & Wills, 2010;Fan & Marini, 2000;Kucinskas, 2010;Kulik, 2000a;Marks, Bun, & McHale, 2009;Mensch et al, 2003;Nelson & Keith, 1990;Richmond-Abbott, 1984;Sagara & Kang, 1998;Stephan & Corder, 1985;Streitmatter, SantaCruz, & Ellis-Schwabe, 1984). Three longitudinal U.S. studies conclude that the difference between boys and girls narrows over time (Davis, 2007;Fan & Marini, 2000;Tallichet & Willits, 1986), although this is contested by another U.S. study of Galambos, Almeida, and Petersen (1990), who found boys becoming less egalitarian and girls more egalitarian over time.…”

“…Thirty out of 35 studies included parental variables. Most of these studies found congruence in GRA between children and parents, indicating that offspring of parents with traditional views hold more traditional views themselves (Antill, Cunningham, & Cotton, 2003;Blee & Tickamyer, 1987;Carlson & Knoester, 2011;Crouter et al, 2007;Davis, 2007;Ex & Janssens, 1998;Meyer, 1980;Sagara & Kang, 1998). A few studies contest this parent-child congruence.…”

“…As argued earlier, most of the studies focus on female respondents and rather traditional family compositions. Besides this, different researchers also note that their sample is rather homogeneous with regard to ethnicity and SES focusing mostly on White, middle-class families (Ahrens & O'Brien, 1996;Crouter et al, 2007;Galambos et al, 1990;Marks et al, 2009;Meyer, 1980;Williams et al, 1992). These findings are in line with the USA-review study performed by Kane (2000) on GRA in adults, indicating racial and ethnic variation in GRA received poor attention.…”

“…Different studies make a plea for moving away from a universal study approach to the construction of GRA, underlining the diversity in attitudes and variables explaining GRA and promoting research into this diversity (Crouter et al, 2007;Fan & Marini, 2000;Kucinskas, 2010;Nelson & Keith, 1990;Sagara & Kang, 1998).…”