The Development of Prejudice and Sex Role Stereotyping in White Adolescents and White Young Adults

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Abstract

White male and female predominantly suburban students in grades 7, 9, 11, and college were given questionnaires that assessed sex-role stereotyping, prejudice against gay males and lesbians, persons with the HIV or AIDS virus, and African Americans. On all measures at all ages, males were more prejudiced and sex-role stereotyped than females. Gay and lesbian prejudice declined with increasing age; race prejudice remained relatively stable during high school, but increased in college; whereas HIV/AIDS prejudice remained relatively flat with increasing age. No systematic age-related patterns of prejudice change were observed. Male and female sex-role stereotyping were positively and equally correlated with all four types of prejudice. Additionally, with the exception of gay and lesbian prejudice, intercorrelations among prejudice types were approximately the same. These findings support the view that a characteristic of intolerance for deviations from social norms underlies commonalities of stereotyping and prejudice in adolescence.

Section snippets

Participants

Data were originally collected from 507 adolescents and young adults. Among the junior and senior high school population, 96% were white, 1% were black, and 3% were of other racial minorities. Among the college population, 78% were white, 12% were black, and 10% were of other racial minorities or were foreign students. Before statistical analysis, the data for 74 students were eliminated from the set for either of three reasons: to ensure an absence of age overlap across grade levels (n = 40);

Results

The data concerning the first issue are presented in Table 1. In Table 1 are means and standard deviations for gay and lesbian prejudice, HIV/AIDS prejudice, and race prejudice separated by age and sex of respondent. For comparison purposes, male and female behavior stereotyping is also presented. The patterns are virtually identical for male and female occupational stereotyping.

The first issue, are there sex differences in level of prejudice, is unambiguously answered in the affirmative. At

Discussion

There were five principal findings in this study. The first showed that preadolescent to young adult males were both more prejudiced and sex-role stereotyped than females. This is consistent with the theoretical position of Fishbein (1996) that males have more at stake in maintaining the status quo in society than do females. It is also consistent both with the theoretical view that females have greater sensitivity to oppressed groups than do males and with the adult literature on this topic.

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