Ethnic and social class differences in children's sex-role concepts

Abstract

Differences in sex-role concepts of 360 Black, Italian, and Jewish children, ages 10 through 17, from middle- and working-class families (as defined by parents' education) were examined through a modifed version of the Sex Role Questionnaire, yielding descriptions of the self and the male and female sex-role stereotypes on both competence and expressive dimensions. As a group, middle-class children have less traditional or more blended sex-role definitions compared to working-class children. Middle-class children view themselves and both sex-role stereotypes as more competent, and middle-class males view themselves as more expressive than do working-class males. While Jewish females describe themselves as extremely expressive and Italian males describe themselves as highly expressive and competent, both Jews and Italians have significantly assimilated the sex-role stereotype definitions of their respective social class groups. In general, Black children describe the male sex-role stereotype as extremely expressive and perceive the two sex roles as fairly similar in expressiveness. Social class status has an opposite effect on sex-role definitions for Blacks than it does for Whites: Black middle-class children view the sex roles as clearly distinct on the competence dimension, describing the male stereotype as extremely competent; Black working-class children see the sex-role stereotypes as more blended on the competence dimension, describing the male sex role stereotype as relatively noncompetent. Ethnic and social class differences are cast in their historical and cultural contexts.