Gender, Internalization of Expressive Traits, and Expectations of Parenting

Abstract

This study examined parental role salience, expectations and intentions, and the extent to which the internalization of gender associated traits may be related to these parenting variables within emerging adults. Childless undergraduates at a western Canadian university (N=236; 119 women) completed a self-report questionnaire. As predicted, role salience and expectations were positively correlated with intentions. Internalization of expressive/ feminine traits, but not instrumental/masculine traits, was positively correlated with all three parenting variables, although gender moderated this relation. While femininity was unrelated to the expectations of women, men possessing more expressive traits held more positive views than their less expressive male counterparts. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the parental roles anticipated by young women and men.

The role of sex and femininity in preferences for unfamiliar infants among Chinese adults

“…Based on the results of the hierarchical regression analysis, our study found that femininity consistently and significantly predicted interest in infants and hedonic reactions to infants before the two-way interaction was entered. The results corroborate the findings of considerable research that has found that adults' internalization of femininity is positively associated with many facets of parenting, such as accessibility to children [31], expectations of parenting [10], and desire to have children [32].…”

Gender Traits and Cognitive Appraisal in Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Locus of Control

“…While changes in gender traits were formally studied in US samples only, the pattern observed by Twenge in the late 1990s is clearly visible in results from recent studies conducted among young adults in different contexts. Indeed, in various cultural settings, male and female students were found not to differ or differ little in their expression of masculine traits, while female students expressed feminine traits to a greater extent than male students (in Canada, Yaremko and Lawson 2007;in Turkey, Özkan and Lajunen 2005;in Sweden, Snellman et al 2009). Finally, note that these results may be due to the participants' cohorts, but also to their educational level, as more highly educated individuals tend to express less pronounced stereotypical gender traits than less educated individuals (in Spanish employees, Calvo-Salguero et al 2008).…”

“…On the other hand, agency-a stereotypically masculine trait-is a valued characteristic in Switzerland (for instance, Switzerland scores high on Hofstede's masculinity dimension; Hofstede 2001). This may explain why, as in many other countries (e.g., in Canada, Yaremko and Lawson 2007;in Turkey, Özkan and Lajunen 2005;in Sweden, Snellman et al 2009), female students living in Switzerland valued masculine traits as much as male students did, but scored higher in feminine traits (Moya et al 2005). A similar pattern was found in the present study.…”

Selective Abortion for Down Syndrome: The Relation Between the Quality of Intergroup Contact, Parenting Expectations, and Willingness to Terminate

“…The anticipation of psychological rewards emerges as the most predictive component of general parenting intentions (Lawson, 2004; Yaremko & Lawson, 2007) and willingness to consider selective abortion for DS (Lawson, 2006). Therefore, the link between interpersonal comfort in past encounters with individuals with DS and the perception of more psychological rewards associated with parenting a child with DS found within the present study may hold particular relevance for furthering the understanding of actual prenatal testing decision making.…”