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

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.