Similarity and Accordance between Parents and Sons in Attitudes toward Mathematics

Abstract

Similarity and accordance are compared as the outcomes of 2 sex-role learning processes, modeling on the behavior of the same-sex parent, and internalization of parental expectations. Fathers and mothers of 35 uppermiddle-class boys were interviewed and their seventh-grade sons administered a questionnaire having to do with attitudes toward mathematics. Parental attitudes and expectations for sons were not related to one another. Mother-son similarity proved greater than father-son similarity; maternal warmth, use of psychological control techniques, and low paternal participation in child rearing were significantly associated with mother-son similarity scores. Father-son accordance (behavior conforming to parental expectations) proved to be greater than mother-son accordance; paternal warmth and high participation in child rearing had a significant positive association with father-son accordance. Fathers who had predominantly masculine expectations for their sons and who saw mathematics as a masculine pursuit had higher levels of aspiration for sons' mathematics performance. The findings are discussed in terms of their lack of fit with traditional identification theories of sex-role learning and in terms of their fit with a theory proposed by Johnson.