Gender role development in early versus late adolescence

Gender roles have been a subject that has been explored through the years. Previous research looked mainly on gender roles and childhood. In the present research, a different outlook of gender roles in adolescence was investigated. This research looked at a sample of 126 middle school and high school students. The students were each given a survey comprised of the Bem Sex Role Inventory and a simple gender recognition test. Test scores were compared with the variables of sex and age (early or late adolescent) through univariate analyses of variance, or ANOVA. The research found an association between gender recognition scores and sex, males having higher gender recognition then females. In addition, it was found that late adolescents scored higher in gender recognition then early adolescents. Lastly, the Bem Sex Role Inventory showed that males are more gender schematic (showing higher masculinity scores) while females were more gender aschematic (showing higher androgyny scores) despite age level