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Exploring Parent-Adolescent Communication About Gender: Results from Adolescent and Emerging Adult Samples

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Abstract

Although parents are assumed to be children’s primary models of socialization when it comes to gender, little is known about direct communication of gendered values in the family. Accordingly, this study assessed the amount and content of recalled parental gender socialization messages using data from 291 U.S. college undergraduates attending a large Midwestern university and 259 U.S. adolescents enrolled in public high schools in the Midwest. The study examined the amount and content of parental communications of five gendered discourses and then tested for connections to current gender beliefs. Findings indicate that gender socialization may be quite similar for sons and daughters, with some evidence of gender typing in patterns of communication. No significant age differences emerged in the patterns of socialization, although high school students reported receiving greater amounts of communication than college students on two of the five discourses. In general, receiving messages promoting traditional gender roles was associated with more traditional gender beliefs (and vice versa), although interpretation of some messages appeared to vary by gender.

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Acknowledgments

This investigation was partially supported by the National Institutes of Health under Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award T32 DA007267.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social Development Research Group, University of Washington, 9725 3rd Avenue, NE Suite 401, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA

    Marina Epstein

  2. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    L. Monique Ward

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  1. Marina Epstein
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  2. L. Monique Ward
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Correspondence to Marina Epstein.

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Epstein, M., Ward, L.M. Exploring Parent-Adolescent Communication About Gender: Results from Adolescent and Emerging Adult Samples. Sex Roles 65, 108–118 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-9975-7

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