Gender differences in leisure time cultural consumption among adolescents: the impact of gender identity, gender role stereotypes and socialization

Quantitative cultural consumption research consistently indicates that women participate more in highbrow cultural activities, such as going to the theatre or a ballet performance and reading literary books, than men (Christin, 2012). This gendered participation in leisure time cultural activities is also present among adolescents (Siongers & Lievens, 2014). For instance, while boys participate more in (certain) sports, girls are more likely to read books, do ballet or take drama classes. However, the social processes behind these findings remain largely unknown. Scarce quantitative research that tries to uncover how this differential cultural behavior is developed during primary socialization often uses suboptimal indicators such as cultural participation during the childhood (when adults are studied) or cultural participation of the parents (in research on adolescents). Thus, what may be truly at the base of the gender differences is ignored: feminine/masculine gender identities and (socialized) gender role ideologies. Indeed, qualitative research indicates that girls actively produce a feminine identity via cultural activities such as reading (Cherland, 1994; Octobre, 2005), and boys ‘do their gender’ and perform ‘hegemonic masculinity’ through their sportive accomplishments (e.g. Meân (2001) and Messner (2000)). Furthermore, parents have strong ideas about what kind of leisure activities are gender (in)appropriate and may act upon these beliefs: for instance, boys are discouraged to do ballet (Kane, 2006). In order to address the lacuna mentioned above, we will present multilevel (logistic) regression analyses on a unique representative sample of 6380 Flemish (Belgian) school boys and girls aged 12-13 (in 59 secondary schools) and their parents. We relate (gendered) leisure participation (including sportive participation and participation in more highbrow cultural practices such as theatre attendance and drama classes) with the children’s gender identity (i.e. a scale which expresses the extent to which the boys and girls identify themselves as a typical boy/girl versus their biological gender). Thus, we will assess the generalizability of existing qualitative findings. Moreover, we study how the gender differences can be traced back to the children’s and parents’ stereotypical gender role ideology and the traditional gendered division of household labor in the family. The traditional gender role ideology measure expresses traditional beliefs on women’s and men’s appropriate role behavior and indicates (dis)approval of gender nonconformity (e.g. “There must be something wrong with a boy doing ballet during leisure time” or “As soon as a woman has children, it is better she stays at home and doesn’t have a job”). We will also consider the impact of traditional/non-traditional household division of labor (who does the cooking, gardening etc.) as this gives insight into the traditional gender role models children might have. By including these variables, we want to get at the gendered socialization processes at the core of the gendering of leisure activities. Thus, we will contribute to the understanding of the causes of gendered cultural tastes and behaviors