Patterns of Authoritarianism Between Generations

Abstract

Summary Family units, consisting of one young adult offspring of either sex and both parents, were given two measures of authoritarianism: The California F Scale and the Traditional Family Ideology (TFI) Scale developed by Levinson and Huffman. The final sample of those families completing all scales consisted of 43 families of female young adults and 25 families of male young adults. As expected, the young adults were significantly less authoritarian than their parents on both measures. Previous research had reported mixed results on sex differences in authoritarianism, some reporting males more authoritarian, others females more authoritarian, and still others no difference. The present study found no sex differences. Mixed results have also been reported in parent-child similarities, with some studies finding cross-sex similarities and others reporting same-sex similarities. The present research supported neither pattern, since none of the parent-offspring correlations was significant for either sex. The lack of parent-offspring correlation was viewed as an indication of shifting socialization influences from the family to other institutions.