Section Author(s) Love a Son, Raise a Daughter: A Cross-Sectional Examination of African American Mothers ’ Parenting Styles

James Telesford is a graduating senior with a double major in Psychology and Sociology. His broad research interests include racism, discrimination, stereo-types, and institutional influences on cognition. Currently, he is completing his Honors thesis for the University Honors Program. His thesis focuses on African American mother/child dynamics, spe-cifically, examining the stereotype that the “African American mother ‘loves’ her son but ‘raises ’ her daughter. ” He hopes to further pursue his research in graduate school. He thanks his fac-ulty mentor for her unwavering support and guidance, and his parents for their unconditional love and support. A B S T R A C T The primary focus of this study is to answer the question: “Do African American mothers ‘raise ’ their daughters but ‘love ’ their sons? ” This element of Black folklore has been around for more than two decades, but it has little empirical evidence (Randolph, 1995). Indirect support for the belief is found in studies reporting that parents are more permissive with children of the opposite sex (Williams, 1988). As part of a larger four-year longitudinal project examining socialization and personality development in African American families, 94 mothers and their 7-year-old (n=26), 10-year-old (n=26), 13-year-old (n=23), or 16-year-old (n=19) daughters or sons were videotaped while discussing a topic upon which they disagreed but were directed to come to a consensus. Four raters assessed these dyads on the degree of warmth and control exhibited by the mothers. In addition, the children were examined to discover whether there were gender differences in the way they behaved with their mothers. While no evidence was found for the mothers behaving differently with their sons, there was clear evidence that boys behaved differently than girls with their mothers