Links between family gender socialization experiences in childhood and gendered occupational attainment in young adulthood

Gendered occupational segregation remains prevalent across the world. Although research has examined factors contributing to the low number of women in male-typed occupations – namely science, technology, engineering, and math – little longitudinal research has examined the role of childhood experiences in both young women's and men's later gendered occupational attainment. This study addressed this gap in the literature by examining family gender socialization experiences in middle childhood – namely parents' attitudes and work and family life – as contributors to the gender typicality of occupational attainment in young adulthood. Using data collected from mothers, fathers, and children over approximately 15 years, the results revealed that the associations between childhood socialization experiences (~ 10 years old) and occupational attainment (~ 26 years old) depended on the sex of the child. For sons but not daughters, mothers' more traditional attitudes toward women's roles predicted attaining more gender-typed occupations. In addition, spending more time with fathers in childhood predicted daughters attaining less and sons acquiring more gender-typed occupations in young adulthood. Overall, evidence supports the idea that childhood socialization experiences help to shape individuals' career attainment and thus contribute to gender segregation in the labor market.     

Relation of occupational knowledge to career interests and competence perceptions in Italian children

The relations of differential occupational knowledge with interests and competence perceptions in children as well as how these relations were moderated by gender and grade were examined in this study using an Italian sample. Data were collected from samples of elementary school and middle school children (N = 539). The Inventory of Children's Activities—Revised (ICA-R; Tracey & Ward, 1998) was used to assess children's interest and competency perceptions in various activities associated with the Holland's RIASEC types. The Occupational Knowledge Scale (OKS) was created for this study, and consisted of a representative sampling of occupational titles to which children indicated their knowledge. Hierarchical regression results indicated a relationship between knowledge, interests, and competence perceptions in children. With regard to overall knowledge, no relationship was found between general knowledge and either grade or gender. More specific examination of the type of knowledge as it varied across the dimensions of People–Things, and Data–Ideas demonstrated that there appeared to be a specific pattern relating interest, gender, and grade to knowledge of occupations. For knowledge of people relative to things occupations, higher interest, higher grade level, and being female predicts stronger knowledge of people occupations. It was also found that interest in ideas predicts stronger knowledge of ideas occupations, and being male predicts stronger knowledge of high prestige occupations. Generally, competence perceptions did not have a unique relation with one's knowledge of People–Things, Ideas–Data, or Prestige; however, girls who reported higher competence had greater knowledge of ideas occupations.     

The mediating role of positive relations with others in associations between depressive symptoms, social skills, and perceived stress

This study was designed to examine the role of positive relations with others as a mediator of the association between poor social skills and depression and between depression and increased perceptions of stress. To test these two models, data were collected from 179 young adults assessed three times over the course of 4 months. Sobel’s product of coefficients test and lower-level mediation modeling were used to evaluate these predictions. The results showed that positive relations with others completely mediated the negative association between social skills and depression. Social skills also moderated the positive association between depression and perceptions of stress. These findings illustrate how positive relations with others function to promote psychological well-being.