Sons, Daughters, and Family Processes: Does Gender of Children Matter?

Abstract

In the United States, parents prefer a child of each gender, and on many dimensions parents tend to treat sons and daughters similarly. However, fathers' investments appear to be somewhat higher in families with sons. Fathers spend more time with sons than with daughters. Fathers more often marry and stay married and mothers report more marital happiness in families with sons-although associations are weakening and differentials are not large. Divorced fathers more often have custody of sons than of daughters. Daughters do more housework than sons, mirroring the gendered division of labor in adulthood. Parental support of educational activities varies, with some parental behaviors greater for sons but others higher for daughters. Whether parents encourage gender differences or whether children's gender-differentiated behaviors elicit differential parental treatment cannot be easily determined with studies to date, most of which are cross-sectional or limited in other ways that hamper conclusions about causal mechanisms.

Educational Inequality Between Brothers and Sisters in the United States

“…On that point, however, using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Survey (WSL), Kim (2005) does not find that parents give more education-transfers to sons over daughters, all else equal. Contrary to Kim (2005), Raley & Bianchi (2006) find more -but not complete -support for the idea that parents invest more in boys' schooling than girls' schooling, when a broader definition of investment is used, including not just money, but also parental time and attention and access to valuable peers (Freese & Powell, 1999).…”

“…The dominant theory is based on gender socialization (Acker, 1987). Many agents, including family, school, and the media, present models of how boys and girls should act in various contexts, including in the classroom (Thorne, 1993;Raley & Bianchi, 2006). In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, the gender socialization process meant that boys received greater encouragement and had higher expectations from parents and teachers than girls, even when they were of equal SES background (Reynolds & Burge, 2008).…”

“…Another theory posits that educational resources could have been funneled toward one sex over the other within the family, which could also limit female achievement (Raley & Bianchi, 2006;Buchmann & DiPrete, 2008). Becker (1991) argues that given higher rates of return on education for men than women, owing to women's supposed less-than-complete commitment to the labor market and discrimination against women in the labor market, "rational" parents would invest more in the education of their sons over daughters.…”

Untraditional caring arrangements among parents living apart

“…Some studies reveal that both shared residence and father sole custody are more likely for boys than for girls (Cancian and Mayer 1998), which is in accordance with research suggesting that the fathers' investment is also somewhat higher in families with sons when parents are married (Raley and Bianchi 2006). However, Skjørten, Barlindhaug and Lidén (2007) discovered no association between children's sex and shared residence in Norway.…”

Beyond Discrete Categories: Studying Multiracial, Intersex, and Transgender Children Will Strengthen Basic Developmental Science

“…Gender and sex are primary lenses through which we view ourselves and others (e.g., Blau & Kahn, 2006;Lytton & Romney, 1991;Money & Ehrehardt, 1972;Raley & Bianchi, 2006). Common examples include asking about the sex of a baby immediately upon learning that a friend is pregnant and giving gifts that are gendered in various ways (e.g., even liberal academics are unlikely to give the parent of a baby boy a pink dress).…”