How does having children of both genders in a family relate to children’s gender-related behaviors and maternal attitudes about them?

The current poster will examine how mothers’ interests, attitudes, and gender socialization practices are related to children’s gender-related traits and interests in families with children of different genders. We compared families with children of both genders to families with children of only one gender. Participants consisted of mothers of 3- to 11- year old children (42 M; 60 F; M age = 6.88 years; SD = 2.85). Mothers reported on one or more children. Mothers completed three measures. First, they completed the Child Gender-Socialization Scale (CGSS, Blakemore \u26 Hill, 2008), which measures parental attitudes regarding the desirability of gender-related interests in their children. Second, they completed the Occupations and Activities Scales of the OAT (Liben \u26 Bigler, 2002), which measures parents’ own interests and attitudes regarding gender-related occupations and adult activities. Finally, they completed the Preschool Activities Inventory (PSAI, Golombok \u26 Rust, 1993), which is a measure of the child’s gender-related traits and interests. Results showed that if a family had children of both genders, mothers were more accepting of sons’ play with feminine toys and activities, yet less accepting of daughters’ feminine play. Also, children had less stereotyped interests and traits when they had siblings of the other gender. However, mothers’ own gender-related interests and their attitudes about adult activities and occupations were not generally related to their children’s interests, except in some instances of girls whose mothers had more feminine interests. In conclusion, sibling configuration is related to not only maternal attitudes about gender-related interests in their children, but also their children’s own interests and traits.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2014/1056/thumbnail.jp