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Under Pressure: Differentiating Adolescents’ Expectations Regarding Stereotypic Masculine and Feminine Behavior

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Abstract

The present study provided a novel way to compare the pressure felt by adolescents to engage in same gender behavior and other gender behavior. A new scale of felt pressure was developed which measured the reactions participants anticipated from others if they were to engage in masculine or feminine stereotyped behaviors. The scale was tested on a sample of 297 Australian adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. Factor analysis indicated two factors which corresponded to Masculine-Typed and Feminine-Typed behaviors. Items related to feminine-typed behaviors were designated as same gender for young women and other gender for young men, and vice versa for masculine-typed items. Analyses indicated that young men reported higher felt pressure to conform to same gender behavior than did young women, and young women reported felt pressure to conform to other gender behavior whereas young men reported pressure to avoid other gender behavior. In addition, high same gender felt pressure was associated with higher self-perceived same gender typicality and lower other gender typicality. Conversely, high other gender felt pressure was associated with high levels of other gender typicality and lower levels of same gender typicality. The presence of same and other gender felt pressure encourages theorists and practitioners to be mindful of the impact of both these influences on adolescents’ gender identity development and psychosocial adjustment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, 4 First Walk, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Emma F. Jackson & Kay Bussey

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  1. Emma F. Jackson
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  2. Kay Bussey
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Correspondence to Emma F. Jackson.

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Appendix

Appendix

Felt Pressure for Gendered Behavior Scale

There are three portions to this 18-item measure, varying the six items in each to target a parent, friends, and one’s self. The instructions for each section then are: (a) “Think about your mother, father or someone else who looks after you a lot. For the following questions, think about that person as your parent.”; (b) “Now think about how your friends would be if you did these activities.”; and (c) “Now think about how you would be if you did these activities.”

  1. 1.

    If I wore a skirt and makeup my parent [my friends; I] would be …

  2. 2.

    If I started a girly activity like ballet my parent [my friends; I] would be …

  3. 3.

    If I was spending a lot of time with girls, my parent [my friends; I] would be …

  4. 4.

    If I wore the jersey of the sports team I support, my parent [my friends; I] would be …

  5. 5.

    If I joined a boys’ sports club, my parent [my friends; I] would be …

  6. 6.

    If I was spending a lot of time with boys, my parent [my friends; I] would be…

Note. Each item is rated on a 7-point scale where 1 = Very pleased, 2 = Quite pleased, 3 = A little pleased, 4 = Wouldn’t care, 5 = A little upset, 6 = Quite upset, 7 = Very upset. For analysis, items are recoded from −3 (Very pleased) to +3 (Very upset). The first three items measure feminine stereotyped behavior; the last three, masculine stereotyped.

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Jackson, E.F., Bussey, K. Under Pressure: Differentiating Adolescents’ Expectations Regarding Stereotypic Masculine and Feminine Behavior. Sex Roles 83, 303–314 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-019-01113-0

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