Children's Perceptions Of Parental Values Regarding Gender
This study examined children's interpretations of parental values regarding gender and how those perceptions influence their gender stereotyping. It was hypothesized that fathers would show higher gender stereotyping than mothers, that children's own values would correlate more strongly with their perceptions of their parents' values than with their parents' actual values, and that parenting style would moderate this relationship. Participants were 41 fourth and fifth graders who completed a parenting style questionnaire; the Sex Stereotype Measure II; and a preference questionnaire regarding how much they would like to perform certain gendered occupations and activities and have certain gendered traits, as well as how they believe their parents would want them to answer. Their parents (N = 58) also completed the preference questionnaire, indicating how they would like their son or daughter to answer each question. The results did not provide consistent support for past research showing that fathers are more concerned with gender conformity than mothers are, and coding difficulties prevented the examination of the prediction that parenting style moderates the relation between parent values and children values. However, findings do suggest that children's perceptions of parents' values influence children's gender concepts more than parents' actual gender-related values.
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