Sex-role Values Research Articles

Sexual Stratification and Sex-Role Socialization

Data on sex-role values of a sample of college women are examined to ascertain the effect of family structure, social class, and religion on sex-role values, and to support a structural theory of sex-role socialization. Patterns of dominance are found to be crucial within the family, and they act as an intervening variable between mother's education and work history, on the one hand, and sex-role values of the daughters, on the other. The relative occupational and educational resources of father and mother affect their power within the family. Sex-role values also are affected by social class, which defines options available to women and influences parental dominance. Religious background exerts an independent, but unexplained, effect.

THE ANTECEDENTS OF SOCIAL DESIRABILITY RESPONSE TENDENCIES OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

ALLAMAN, JACQUELINE D.; JOYCE, CAROL S.; and CRANDALL, VIRGINIA C. The Antecedents of Social Desirability Response Tendencies of Children and Young Adults. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1972, 43, 1135-1160. 2 subject samples from the Fels longitudinal study were used to examine the development of social desirability (SD) response tendencies. In Study I, the Children's Social Desirability scale was administered to children between the ages of 6 to 12 (N = 95); in Study II the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale was given to young adults (N = 65). The results of both studies indicated that harsh parental practices predict subsequent social desirability responding. In Study I, maternal hostility, criticism, restrictiveness, punitiveness, coerciveness, and lack of encouragement of skill development predicted childhood SD among boys. Maternal hostility and criticism were most influential when they occurred during infancy; the remaining antecedents had a stronger effect when they occurred during the preschool years. In Study II, the same maternal behaviors were predictive of SD in young women (with the exception of skill acceleration); perceptions of similar paternal behavior predicted SD in young men. Significant subject antecedents or correlates included imitation, conformity to parents, negative self-perceptions, traditional sex-role values, and poorer intellectual functioning. Noncompliance and dominance (in infancy) were unexpectedly related to adult social desirability, but a decrease in maternal involvement over the childhood years appeared to provide an explanation of these findings.

The Antecedents of Social Desirability Response Tendencies of Children and Young Adults

ALLAMAN, JACQUELINE D.; JOYCE, CAROL S.; and CRANDALL, VIRGINIA C. The Antecedents of Social Desirability Response Tendencies of Children and Young Adults. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1972, 43, 1135-1160. 2 subject samples from the Fels longitudinal study were used to examine the development of social desirability (SD) response tendencies. In Study I, the Children's Social Desirability scale was administered to children between the ages of 6 to 12 (N = 95); in Study II the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale was given to young adults (N = 65). The results of both studies indicated that "harsh" parental practices predict subsequent social desirability responding. In Study I, maternal hostility, criticism, restrictiveness, punitiveness, coerciveness, and lack of encouragement of skill development predicted childhood SD among boys. Maternal hostility and criticism were most influential when they occurred during infancy; the remaining antecedents had a stronger effect when they occurred during the preschool years. In Study II, the same maternal behaviors were predictive of SD in young women (with the exception of skill acceleration); perceptions of similar paternal behavior predicted SD in young men. Significant subject antecedents or correlates included imitation, conformity to parents, negative self-perceptions, traditional sex-role values, and poorer intellectual functioning. Noncompliance and dominance (in infancy) were unexpectedly related to adult social desirability, but a decrease in maternal involvement over the childhood years appeared to provide an explanation of these findings.

Sex-role preferences and adjustment in early adolescents.

Authorities dealing with the personality development and adjustment of children are continually stressing the major importance of achieving the role appropriate to one's sex. While there are a number of studies dealing with the masculinity-femininity dimension as it relates to adult adjustment, there is relatively little research examining sex-role preferences and adjustment in childhood. This lack of research has been acutely felt in the area of adolescent development. The present study was an effort at exploring the possible relations which might exist between sex-appropriate role preferences in early adolescents and several indices of adjust nent. The relations with which the author was principally concerned related to some variables readily observable in the school setting. Seward (12) has written that in early adolescence certain changes in sex-role expectation are introduced which strain the growing child's integrative ability. Many of the changes would appear to be related to the confusion which is being generated by a lack of clarity in the female role. For example, in a study of boys and girls at two age levels (12 and 15 years), Tryon (13) found that sexrole values for girls undergo some marked changes in the direction of greater masculine role preferences. Tuddenham (14) used Tryon's method with a younger group and concluded that girls have much more flexible role choices than boys and that masculine traits increase in value in girls with increasing age. Rabban (ii) noted that both working class and middle class boys ranging in age from 3 to 8 are more clearly aware of sex-appropriate behavior than are girls. In a study of junior high school youngsters, Helper (io) found that boys who follow the role model provided by their father gain