Factors associated with mothers' obesity stigma and young children's weight stereotypes

Parents and children hold negative attitudes about obesity, but little is known about individual differences in obesity stigma. The current study examined authoritarian parenting style, beliefs about the controllability of weight and fear of fat in relation to mothers' dislike of overweight individuals. Factors related to children's weight stereotypes were also investigated. Forty-nine mothers and children (43% girls) participated. Mothers showed more dislike and blame toward adults who are overweight than children who are overweight; parents were most often blamed for children's weight status. Authoritarian parenting and beliefs about controllability were related to mothers' anti-fat attitudes, but fear of fat was not. However, mothers' fear of fat was the best predictor of children's negative stereotypes toward overweight peers. The current study provides some preliminary insight into the role of mothers in children's attitudes about weight. Examining individual difference factors is also useful in planning targeted interventions to lessen obesity stigma.     

Traditionality of children's interests as related to their parents' gender stereotypes and traditionality of occupations

This study tested the common hypothesis that parents' gender stereotypes, maternal employment status, and the traditionality of parents' occupations, are associated with the traditionality of children's vocational interests. The traditionality of preschool children's (n=113) interests was examined by an instrument developed for the current study. Parents were administered the Attitudes toward Women Scale, and traditionality of their occupations was assessed. Only the traditionality of the mothers' occupations significantly correlated with the traditionality of the interests of both boys and girls. Other variables tested, as well as their interactions, were not found to show such relationships. The results were discussed in terms of the function of the role model in gender identity development and vocational schema modification.We thank Rachel Karniol for her helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

Pressures and pretense: Living with gender stereotypes

This study examines how people live with two gender stereotypes: (1) masculine/active and feminine/passive roles; and (2) masculine/emotional inexpressiveness and feminine/emotional expressiveness. Given the contrast between traditional gender stereotypes and the emergent feminist perspective, we expected that both men and women would experience pressures both to conform to and to deviate from the traditional stereotypes, although the pressures would be greater for women. A study of active/passive roles and specific emotions, with a sample of 141 men and women, revealed that both sexes felt such contradictory pressures, and that they actually were greater for women. Moreover, pressures were magnified in cross-sex interaction. Pretense was one way people consciously monitor feelings and manage interactions. A number of paradoxes emerged. The most dramatic is that both men and women experienced each other as demanding stereotypical behavior, yet both claimed self-motivation for change.The author thanks Lucile Duberman for her incisive suggestions, Nancy Leff for her valuable editorial assistance, and Anne Marie Fodera and Laura Mestress for their competent work as research assistants.     

Evolution of gender stereotypes in Spain: traits and roles

The aim of this study is twofold: to determine whether (and how) gender stereotypes have changed over time through a comparison of two different sets of data collected in 1993 (N=1255) and 2001 (N=1255) from a representative sample of the Spanish population, and to examine the relation between gender traits and roles and its stability over time. In addition, special attention is paid to the psychometric properties of the measures of gender traits and roles used in the study. The content of gender stereotypes was found to remain stable over the target period of time, confirming the classical typology (a higher assignment of expressive-communal traits to women and of instrumental-agentic traits to men). The structure of the gender-role questionnaire allows us to distinguish between family-role and work-role stereotyping. Gender-role stereotyping shows a marked decline between 1993 and 2001, a result that contrasts with the stability of trait-role stereotyping. The fact that a very low correlation is observed at the two time points between these two components of gender stereotyping strongly suggests their independence.     

Boys will be boys (and girls will be girls): The attribution of gender role stereotypes in a gaming situation

This study tested one hypothesis concerning the attribution of gender role stereotypes about competitive behavior and three hypotheses concerning differences in attribution of sex between male and female subjects. The study used a Prisoner's Dilemma Game setting to expose subjects to one of three conditions (competitive, cooperative, or tit-for-tat) to measure attribution of sex to an unknown confederate. A chi-square analysis revealed significant differences in the attribution of sex to the anonymous confederate between the competitive and the combined cooperative and tit-for-tat groups. In the competitive condition, subjects were more prone to think that the anonymous confederate was male than were subjects in the cooperative and tit-for-tat condition. This finding is consistent with the gender role stereotype that generally associates competitive behavior with masculinity and not with femininity. Post hoc chi-squares also revealed no difference between male and female subjects in the attribution of sex in any of the three conditions. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

When stereotypes disadvantage boys: Strength of stereotypes in mathematics and language arts and their relations with grades

There is growing concern about boys' lagging performance in school, not only in language arts, where the gap is particularly pronounced, but also in mathematics. Stereotypes associating one gender with language arts or with mathematics are likely to contribute to these gaps. Such stereotypes can translate into explicit beliefs such as the extent to which students are aware of societal stereotypes or the extent to which they personally believe stereotypes to be true, but also indirectly into performance following a stereotype threat manipulation. However, few studies have considered these multiple stereotype expressions in both mathematics and language arts to examine their importance in predicting boys' and girls' actual grades in school. To fill this gap, two complementary studies examined high school boys' and girls' awareness and endorsement of stereotypes about both language arts (n = 299) and mathematics (n = 243), as well as whether stereotype threat impaired boys' performance on a spelling test. Although the effect of stereotype threat was not significant overall, our results showed that students were aware of and endorsed strong stereotypes advantaging girls in language arts. In mathematics, students endorsed counter-traditional stereotypes slightly advantaging girls. Our results also showed that these multiple expressions of stereotypes related to students' grades. In doing so, our work provides insights regarding possible targets for interventions to reduce gender gaps disadvantaging boys in school.     

Gender differences in children's arithmetic performance are accounted for by gender differences in language abilities

Studies have shown that female children, on average, consistently outperform male children in arithmetic. In the research reported here, 1,556 pupils (8 to 11 years of age) from urban and rural regions in the greater Beijing area completed 10 cognitive tasks. Results showed that girls outperformed boys in arithmetic tasks (i.e., simple subtraction, complex multiplication), as well as in numerosity-comparison, number-comparison, number-series-completion, choice reaction time, and word-rhyming tasks. Boys outperformed girls in a mental rotation task. Controlling for scores on the word-rhyming task eliminated gender differences in arithmetic, whereas controlling for scores on numerical-processing tasks (number comparison, numerosity estimation, numerosity comparison, and number-series completion) and general cognitive tasks (choice reaction time, Raven's Progressive Matrices, and mental rotation) did not. These results suggest that girls' advantage in arithmetic is likely due to their advantage in language processing.     

Framing gender differences: Linguistic normativity affects perceptions of power and gender stereotypes

When unknown groups and equal status groups are compared by contrasting one group (“the effect to be explained”) against another (“the linguistic norm”), the group positioned as the norm is sometimes perceived as more powerful, more agentic, and as less communal. Such perceptions may contribute to status‐linked stereotypes, as group differences are spontaneously described by positioning higher‐status groups as the linguistic norm. Here, 103 participants considered gender differences in status to be larger and more legitimate and applied gender stereotypes more readily upon reading about gender differences in leadership that were framed around a male rather than a female linguistic norm. These effects did not generalize to 113 participants who read about gender differences in leisure time preferences framed around either norm. Jointly, these results suggest that the effects of linguistic framing on perceived group status and power and on group stereotypes generalize to domains where there are real differences in status, and contexts in which higher‐status groups are the default standard for comparison. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reciprocal associations between young children's developing moral judgments and theory of mind

Associations between young children's developing theory of mind (ToM) and judgments of prototypical moral transgressions were examined 3 times across 1 year in 70 American middle class 2.5- to 4-year-olds. Separate path models controlling for cross-time stability in judgments, within-time associations, and children's age at Wave 1 indicated that across both 6-month intervals, children who evaluated moral acts as more wrong independent of authority had more mature ToM 6 months later; in addition, judgments of moral transgressions as less permissible at Wave 2 also led to more advanced ToM at Wave 3. Children with more advanced ToM judged that moral rules are more alterable, however, and rated moral transgressions as less deserving of punishment. Finally, more advanced ToM initially led to evaluations of moral transgressions as less independent of rules and then to judgments of moral transgressions as more independent of rules. During the preschool years, early moral judgments and theory of mind appear to develop as reciprocal, bidirectional processes.     

The three bears are all boys: Mothers' gender labeling of neutral picture book characters

Two studies examined mother's labeling of gender-neutral characters in young children's picture books. In the first study, mothers and their 18- to 38-month-old children looked at three popular children's books together. The mothers' use of masculine or feminine names or pronouns to refer to gender-neutral characters was recorded. The data revealed an extreme masculine bias: 95% of all characters of indeterminate gender were referred to by the mothers as males. In a second study, specially prepared picture books were used to examine the effect of gender-relevant variables on the mothers' labeling. The results replicated Study 1 in showing a strong bias toward referring to neutral pictures with masculine labels: The incidence of masculine labels was again high and, in addition, was relatively impervious to most of the gender-relevant manipulations included in the books. The one variable that had a strong, consistent effect on the mothers' labeling was the presence of an adult in the pictures: Child Characters were nearly always referred to as males when they appeared alone; they were more likely to be given feminine or neutral lables when they were pictured in the presence of an adult. This result is related to Carpenter's [Activity Structure and Play: Implications for Socialization, in M. Liss (Ed.), Social and Cognitive Skills: Sex Roles and Childrens Play, New York: Academic Press, 1983] model of the development of sex-typed behavior. The data are also discussed with respect to the well-documented sexist bias in picture books for preschool children.This research was support in part by Grants HD-05951 from NICHHD and R01 MH33082-01 from NIMH to the first and third authors, respectively. We wish to thank Linda Roots and Elizabeth Lewis for their assitance with data analyses.     

Occupational gender stereotypes and problem-solving in Italian adolescents

The first purpose of the study was to establish how Italian adolescents perceive jobs in the newly emerging economy sectors as well as more traditional jobs from gender-stereotyped and gender-segregated perspectives. The second purpose was to verify the role of problem-solving and gender in gender-role stereotyping. A total of 217 Italian high school students were involved. A questionnaire developed by Miller and Hayward was used to examine the students’ occupational gender-role stereotyping, segregation and interests. The Problem-Solving Inventory was administered to examine problem-solving. Adolescents perceived most jobs as being gender-stereotyped and -segregated. Female gender and problem-solving ability were associated with a reduced tendency to perceive jobs as gender-stereotyped.     

Age patterns in the development of children's gender-role stereotypes

This study examined the effect of the positive/negative quality of a gender-role stereotype on the age at which very young children are willing to associate the behavior with a member of a particular sex. The results indicate that, in comparison to 5- and 6-year olds, 4-year-old children are reluctant (1) to associate positive gender-role stereotypes with opposite-sex figures as well as (2) to accept negative stereotypes as characteristic of their own sex. In addition, a majority of the children in the sample associated with their own sex the gender-role stereotypes that are highly valued in the preschool and the school environment.     

Images of occupations: Components of gender and status in occupational stereotypes

A multidimensional approach to occupational gender type was explored. In Study 1, participants' spontaneous images of various jobs were elicited. The attributes generated were used to develop a job images questionnaire employed in Study 2 on which participants rated a random sample of 100 occupational titles. Occupational images were primarily structured on two orthogonal dimensions: prestige and gender type. The multidimensional approach to occupational gender-type was supported in that important gender-related occupational attributes (masculine personality trait requirements and analytical skills) did not load on the gender-type factor, but did load highly on the prestige factor. Thus, even though the prestige and gender-type factors were orthogonal, specific gender-related attributes were related to perceived occupational prestige.     

Challenging gender stereotypes: Theory of mind and peer group dynamics

To investigate the social cognitive skills related to challenging gender stereotypes, children (N = 61, 3–6 years) evaluated a peer who challenged gender stereotypic norms held by the peer's group. Participants with false belief theory of mind (FB ToM) competence were more likely than participants who did not have FB ToM to expect a peer to challenge the group's stereotypes and propose that the group engage in a non‐stereotypic activity. Further, participants with FB ToM rated challenging the peer group more positively. Participants without FB ToM did not differentiate between their own and the group's evaluation of challenges to the group's stereotypic norms, but those with ToM competence asserted that they would be more supportive of challenging the group norm than would the peer group. Results reveal the importance of social‐cognitive competencies for recognizing the legitimacy of challenging stereotypes, and for understanding one's own and other group perspectives.     

The etiology of children's stereotypes about sex differences in emotionality

Contemporary preschool-aged children have pronounced sex-role stereotypes about emotionality. They feel that anger is a male characteristic, while fear, sadness, and happiness are female characteristics. Four studies investigated several possible sources of these stereotypes, including parental stereotypes, parental reinforcement practices, television programming, and actual sex-differences in emotionality. The results suggest that each of these sources may potentially contribute to children's stereotypes about emotionality.     

Undergraduates regard deviation from occupational gender stereotypes as costly for women

Studies from the 1970s have shown deviation from norms defining the gender-appropriateness of occupations to be costly for both women and men. Two hundred thirty undergraduates wrote open-ended stories and rated a stimulus person, Anne or John, who was described at the top of his/her class in medicine or one of four persistently gender-skewed fields: nursing, day care, electrical engineering, and electrician. Across all five occupations, negative imagery in stories about Anne and John in gender-incongruent occupations disappeared. However, when Anne succeeded in the two currently female-incongruent fields, raters treated her as a personal and social deviate by distancing themselves and by denigrating her role behaviors and personal traits, including her femininity. Parallel costs were not found for John nor were Anne's work-related qualities undermined. Undergraduates expect deviation from occupational gender-types in the 1990s to be personally costly for women, but not for men.The authors wish to thank Peggy Braam for her invaluable help with data collection and entry, and Arnold Kahn, John Zipp, Stephanie Riger, Lynne Berendsen, and Patricia Aniakudo. Parts of this paper were presented at the meetings of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago in May 1993 and at the meetings of the American Psychological Association in Los Angeles in August 1994.     

Battered women in the criminal justice system: An analysis of gender stereotypes

Battered women charged with killing their abusers present a dilemma to the criminal justice system. Myths and stereo-types about women and battered women play a prominent role in the courtroom presentation of both defense and prosecution cases. While the prosecution may attempt to discredit the defendant for not living up to the standard of a ‘good woman’, the defense counters with an equally distorted portrayal of the defendant as ultra-feminine: the passive, helpless victim. Ten court cases of battered women charged with the death of their partners form the basis for a gender analysis of the social construction of the trial setting. This analysis includes the structure of the trial, the language of the trial interchange, the participants in the process, and the role the defendant played in her own defense.     

Rigidity and flexibility of gender stereotypes in childhood: developmental or differential?

Previous research has shown that the early learning of male–female categories is characterized by rigid beliefs about stereotypic differences, but that once gender knowledge is well established, the beliefs become more flexible. Because most studies are cross‐sectional, it is not known if the early rigidity represents a normative transitional developmental stage that passes, or if early individual differences in rigidity continue into later childhood. To answer that question, analyses were performed on longitudinal data of 64 children who had been questioned about their gender concepts yearly from ages 5 to 10 years. Supporting a cognitive‐developmental approach, the findings showed that the period of rigidity was short‐lived whether rigidity began early or late or whether the level of peak rigidity was high or low. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pre-event stereotypes and misinformation effects in young children

This study examined the effects of pre-event stereotypes on 5-year-old children's memories for the visit of an adult male to their school. Children were read three stories in which this man was described in positive, negative, or neutral terms. Following the visit, children were read post-event narratives which contained positive and negative misinformation that was consistent and inconsistent with the pre-event stereotype. Children were then given a recognition test under inclusion and exclusion instructions. Negative misinformation was correctly rejected more often than positive misinformation. Children given a positive pre-event stereotype were more likely to accept positive misinformation than those in the other stereotype conditions. Process dissociation analyses revealed that recollection for negative misinformation was larger than for positive misinformation; the opposite was the case for familiarity.