Self-Other Differentiation and the Mother-Child Relationship: The Effects of Sex and Birth Order

We examined the effect of sex and birth order on the experience of a separate sense of self and its connection to mothers' differential involvement with sons and daughters. Results from two samples of college-age students are reported. Men showed a more separate sense of self than women, and mothers were reported to be more highly involved with and intrusive in the lives of their daughters than their sons. Results for birth order were consistent though not always statistically significant: First-born women had the least separate sense of self and reported the greatest degree of maternal involvement and intrusiveness. Implications of these findings for developmental theory and criteria of Psychological well-being are discussed.     

Sex and birth order differences in filial behavior

Personal interviews were conducted with 499 children of elderly white widows. Results showed no birth order differences in the provision of assistance to the elderly; however, there were significant sex differences. Daughters performed more caretaking activities and social services and provided more emotional support for their mothers than did sons. Sons had a tendency, though insignificant, to provide more advisory assistance to their mothers. After adjusting for situational differences between daughters and sons a sex difference remained only for the provision of emotional support.     

Sex Differences in Mothers' Speech and Play Behavior with 6-, 9-, and 14-Month-Old Infants

In this study, we analyzed mothers' speech and play behavior with their 6-, 9-, and 14-month-old sons and daughters. Thirty-six infant–mother dyads participated in a 10-min free-play session with gender-neutral toys. No sex differences were found in the infants' behavior, but sex differences were found in mothers' verbal behavior and level of engagement. Mothers of daughters made more interpretations and engaged in more conversation with their daughters, whereas mothers of sons made more comments and attentionals, which were typified by instructions rather than conversation. Furthermore, mothers interacted more with their daughters than with their sons across all ages. Overall, these results demonstrate that mothers transmit different messages to their male and female infants, both through language and interaction, which may contribute to infants' gender role development.     

Caring for infant daughters and sons in dual‐earner households: maternal reports of father involvement in weekday time and tasks

This study focused on maternal reports of gender differences in weekday father involvement with 12‐month‐olds in 47 dual‐earner households utilizing full time infant day care. Three involvement variables were considered: father's time alone with the infant; father's time available to the infant; and father participation in caregiving tasks. The results showed fathers to be available to sons significantly more than daughters. Fathers were also significantly more involved in caregiving tasks with sons than with daughters. There was no difference in father time alone with sons and daughters. Examination of these three involvement measures in relation to demographic, family environment, and infant temperament measures revealed that mothers' reported fathers as being available more to sons than to daughters. In addition, mothers reported fathers to be more available to temperamentally easy sons than to temperamentally difficult sons. Recommendations are made for future research. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Father, Mother and Me: Parental Value Orientations and Child Self-identity in Asian American Immigrants

Relations between Asian American parental value orientations and children’s self-identity in the domains of achievement and relationship were examined. Sixty-nine Asian American youths (15 males) of East Asian origin (51 Chinese, 18 Koreans) interviewed their parents (30 fathers) for their life stories as first-generation Asian Americans. They also told their life stories as second-generation Asian Americans. Fathers and mothers upheld Confucian values, which were associated with children’s autonomous sense of self in achievement domain and relational sense of self in relationship domain. Furthermore, fathers and mothers had differential influences on children’s self-identity, and sons and daughters responded differently to parental value socializations. Findings are discussed with respect to parent–child relationships and continuity of ethnic values in contemporary Asian American families.     

Exploring sex differences in the emotional content of mother-child conversations about the past

In this study, the ways in which mothers and their 30–35-month-old children discussed the emotional aspects of past experiences was explored. Although previous research has established that children this age talk about emotions, and some studies have found sex differences between mother-daughter and mother-son dyads in these conversations, no study has examined explicitly the way in which emotions about the past are discussed. This is an important research question because emotional aspects of events may help provide an evaluative framework for thinking about and talking about the past. The results suggest that, with daughters, mothers focus more on positive emotions and tend not to attribute negative emotions to the child. With sons, positive and negative emotions are discussed equally. Moreover, mothers never discuss anger with their daughters but they do with their sons. Finally, mother-daughter conversations emphasize the emotional state itself, whereas mother-son conversations often discuss the causes and consequences of emotions. The way in which these patterns might contribute to children's developing understanding of gender-appropriate emotional reactions are discussed.     

Mothers' Reactions to Children Misbehaving in Ways That Can Lead to Injury: Implications for Gender Differences in Children's Risk Taking and Injuries

A scenario methodology in which mothers imagined themselves and their school-age children in different home situations was used to examine mothers' reactions to sons and daughters when the children were misbehaving in ways that could, and sometimes did, result in injuries. Prior to injury, mothers predominantly expressed anger to sons and disappointment to daughters, focusing primarily on safety issues in response to daughters' misbehavior and discipline issues in response to sons' misbehavior. Once an injury resulted, mothers became concerned about their children, but the degree of concern was greater for injuries to daughters than to sons. Sons' risky misbehavior was attributed predominantly to nonmodifiable characteristics, whereas daughters' risky misbehavior was attributed to factors that a parent could expect to influence. Consistent with these attributions, mothers advocated active injury-prevention approaches to prevent injury recurrence to daughters, but did not believe that much else could be done to prevent injury recurrence to sons. Generally, the pattern of results support the notion that mothers expect more risky behavior of sons than of daughters, are more concerned about injuries to daughters than sons, and believe they can have greater influence on the risk-taking behavior of daughters than sons. Implications of these results for understanding gender differences in children's risk-taking and injuries are discussed.     

Neonatal sex and birth-order effects on behaviors of mothers and temporary caretakers during bottle-feeding

This study examined the effects of neonatal sex and birth order on maternal caretaking patterns for pre-attachment behaviors shown by mothers and instrumental behaviors seen in both mothers and temporary caretakers. Observational category scores were obtained for mothers of 20 newborn infants and for temporary caretakers observed in a 15 min bottle-feeding situation. A repeated measures analysis of variance design was used to partition categories into caretaking classifications and to evaluate the effects of infant sex and birth order. Significant main effects for caretaker (p less than .05) were obtained: six mother-high, pre-attachment categories, and seven mother-low, instrumental behavior categories. Maternal scores sensitive to infant sex and birth order were identified from Caretaker x Sex x Birth Order interactions (p less than .05). Birth order differences affected maternal behaviors directed toward sons more substantially than those directed toward daughters. Mothers held first-born sons upright in tactual contact with the trunk, whereas daughters were held supine on the lap and exposed to frequent maternal smiling.     

Gender Differences in the ABC’s of the Birds and the Bees: What Mothers Teach Young Children About Sexuality and Reproduction

Sexuality education is heavily gendered at adolescence. This study uses data from a national web survey of 631 U.S. mothers of 3 to 6 year old children to test whether similar gender differences exist in what mothers teach their young children about sexuality and reproduction. We test (a) whether mothers will report talking more with daughters or sons about sexuality related issues, and (b) whether mothers will report greater comfort talking about such issues with daughters or sons. We find (a) that mothers talk more to daughters than sons about romantic relationships, reproductive bodies, and morality, but not about sexual abuse or intercourse/pleasure. We find (b) mixed results regarding mothers’ comfort in talking with daughters or sons about sexuality.     

Gender differences in parent-child conversations about past emotions

In this study, we examined the emotional content of parents’ conversations about past events with their 40-month-old children. Subjects were 24 white middle-class children and their mothers and fathers. At separate home visits, each parent independently engaged the child in conversation about three events that parent and child had experienced together only once before. Mothers and fathers talked about emotional aspects of events in similar ways, but they both used a greater number and variety of emotion words with daughters than with sons. Parents also mentioned sad aspects of events more with daughters than with sons. Implications of the differential socialization of emotion for boys and girls are discussed.     

Attitudes about Affirmative Action for Women: The Role of Children in Shaping Parents’ Interests

This paper uses pooled cross-sectional data from the 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006 General Social Surveys (GSS), a nationally representative sample of the U.S. adult population, to assess how employed parents’ attitudes about affirmative action for women are influenced by their children’s gender. The analytic sample includes 1,695 employed respondents. Findings based on logistic regression indicate that having daughters (and no sons) magnifies employed mothers’ support for affirmative action for women and minimizes employed fathers’ support. Conversely, having sons (and no daughters) does not suppress mothers’ support for affirmative action for women, nor does it differentiate men’s attitudes about affirmative action. We speculate about how these patterns in parents’ attitudes relate to self interest and group interest (i.e., their children’s future work experiences).     

投资决策进化心理学的研究：预期的私人资金分配和父母对子女的差异性精力投入

投资决策的进化心理学研究着眼于辨认人类获得进化适应的特定环境中经常出现的典型性风险,探寻为了应对这些风险而进化出的信息处理机制,并验证现时的社会因素和个体因素对这些心理机制的激活或抑制作用。在研究一中,被试预测了与自己同龄的男人或女人如何分配一笔中彩的奖金给自己和其他可能的受益人。研究发现：（1）钱数的分配大体由亲缘关系的疏密程度决定;（2）两性被试都假想男性比女性更慷慨,但实际上男性表现得更自利;（3）女性被试预测男性中奖人的金钱分配比男性被试预测女性中奖人的金钱分配更为准确;（4）女性被试的受益人更多,分享的社会范围更广。研究二探讨了父母对子女投入精力的不同取决于家庭的相对财富而非绝对财富的进化心理学假说。用哺乳与否和生育间隔期为测量指标,研究结果显示：（1）家庭实际收入影响父母对子女的总投入;（2）与邻里家庭相比,父母对于自己家庭相对收入的认知影响了对子女有别的差异性精力投入。基于男性普遍在财富和生育数量上比女性有更大的变异度,投资儿子比投资女儿更具博弈性。两项研究表明,人类的理性决策既受限于社会关系又适应于相对的财富状况     

Attentional Biases for Emotional Faces in Young Children of Mothers with Chronic or Recurrent Depression

Attentional biases for negative stimuli have been observed in school-age and adolescent children of depressed mothers and may reflect a vulnerability to depression. The direction of these biases and whether they can be identified in early childhood remains unclear. The current study examined attentional biases in 5–7-year-old children of depressed and non-depressed mothers. Following a mood induction, children participated in a dot-probe task assessing biases for sad and happy faces. There was a significant interaction of group and sex: daughters of depressed mothers attended selectively to sad faces, while children of controls and sons of depressed mothers did not exhibit biases. No effects were found for happy stimuli. These findings suggest that attentional biases are discernible in early childhood and may be vulnerability markers for depression. The results also raise the possibility that sex differences in cognitive biases are evident before the emergence of sex differences in the prevalence of depression.     

Beyond the “Birds and the Bees”: Gender Differences in Sex‐Related Communication Among Urban African‐American Adolescents

To read this article's abstract in both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, please visit the article's full‐text page on Wiley InterScience ( http://interscience.wiley.com/journal/famp ). The current study examined gender differences in communication about sex‐related topics in a community sample of urban, African‐American mothers and adolescents living in impoverished neighborhoods with high HIV rates. One hundred and sixty‐two mother–adolescent dyads completed self‐report measures of sex‐related communication. Youth also reported on their sexual risk. We identified the range of sexual‐based topics that adolescents discussed with their mothers, fathers, friends, and at school. The relationship between the frequency of sexual communication and sexual risk was examined. We also investigated congruency between adolescent and mother report about whether sexual‐based discussions occurred. Consistent with prior research, girls talked to their mothers, fathers, friends, and at school about sex‐related topics more than boys. Findings indicated that mothers not only communicated more frequently about sexual issues with their daughters than sons but that parental messages for girls were more protective. Greater sexual communication with mother was significantly associated with decreased HIV risk in the past 90 days and increased protection from HIV. Inconsistencies between mother and adolescent reports about sexual communication were marginally associated with decreased protection from HIV. Findings reveal the protective effect of sexual communication and the general lack of congruence between mother and adolescent reports of sexual communication.     

Parent-child conversations about science: the socialization of gender inequities?

This study investigated the family as a context for the gender typing of science achievement. Adolescents (N = 52) from 2 age levels (mean ages = 11 and 13 years) participated with their mothers and fathers on separate occasions; families were from predominantly middle-income European American backgrounds. Questionnaires measured the parents' and the child's attitudes. Each parent also engaged his or her child in 4 structured teaching activities (including science and nonscience tasks). There were no child gender or grade-level differences in children's science-related grades, self-efficacy, or interest. However, parents were more likely to believe that science was less interesting and more difficult for daughters than sons. In addition, parents' beliefs significantly predicted children's interest and self-efficacy in science. When parents' teaching language was examined, fathers tended to use more cognitively demanding speech with sons than with daughters during one of the science tasks.     

The Role of Parental Attitudes and Monitoring in the Risk Exposure of Young Children1

The parental monitoring literature debates the role of parental activity, as opposed to parental knowledge in childhood risk taking. We examined parents’ attitudes and behaviors regarding roadside supervision of children aged 4 to 6 years using self‐report and observational measures. Although parents perceived sons as less careful than daughters, they reported no sex differences in the age children would be allowed out unsupervised. There were no self‐report differences in supervision according to socioeconomic status. However, roadside observations showed that boys and children from a lower socioeconomic area received less supervision than girls or those from a higher socioeconomic area. Such findings contribute to our understanding of the sex and socioeconomic differences in accident involvement and the role of parental monitoring.     

Attachment and sensitivity in family context: the roles of parent and infant gender

This study examined the role of child gender in fathers' and mothers' sensitivity to and attachment relationships with their infants from a family systems perspective. Eighty‐seven 1‐year‐olds participated in the Strange Situation with each parent. Parental sensitivity was examined during a competing demands task. Results indicated that fathers and mothers were equally sensitive to sons, but fathers were less sensitive than mothers to daughters, and mothers were more sensitive to daughters than to sons. Although mothers and fathers within the same families were similarly sensitive to daughters and sons, daughters' attachment security with fathers and mothers was similar whereas sons' was not. Further analyses revealed that fathers were more sensitive to sons with an insecure relationship with their mothers. Results of this investigation suggest that child gender is relevant for parent–infant, especially father–infant, attachment relationships. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring Mothers’ and Fathers’ Relationships with Sons Versus Daughters: Links to Adolescent Adjustment in Mexican Immigrant Families

Drawing on ecological and gender socialization perspectives, this study examined mothers’ and fathers’ relationships with young adolescents, exploring differences between mothers and fathers, for sons versus daughters, and as a function of parents’ division of paid labor. Mexican immigrant families (N?=?162) participated in home interviews and seven nightly phone calls. Findings revealed that mothers reported higher levels of acceptance toward adolescents and greater knowledge of adolescents’ daily activities than did fathers, and mothers spent more time with daughters than with sons. Linkages between parent-adolescent relationship qualities and youth adjustment were moderated by adolescent gender and parents’ division of paid labor. Findings revealed, for example, stronger associations between parent–adolescent relationship qualities and youth adjustment for girls than for boys.     

Inner-City Single Black Mothers’ Gender-Related Childrearing Expectations and Goals

Semi-structured interviews with nine U.S. Midwestern inner-city single Black mothers of young children were analyzed using inductive qualitative methods to determine similarities and differences in their expectations and goals for sons versus daughters. Drawing on critical race feminism, we developed links between these ideas, mothers’ personal experiences with men, and prevailing Black gender ideologies. Mothers valued independence and strength in daughters and hoped to prevent early sexual activity. Mothers with sons couched their aspirations in terms of counter-examples but were fatalistic. Childrearing goals reflected fears based on personal experiences.     

Generational Differences in Gender Attitudes Between Parents and Grown Offspring

This study examined generational differences in gender attitudes between parents and grown offspring, including the extent to which these differences vary in families with daughters vs families with sons and in African American vs European American families. Participants included 158 African American and European American men and women (aged 22 to 49 years), their mothers, and their fathers (N?=?474) recruited predominantly through purchased telephone lists. Participants completed a self-report measure of gender attitudes toward marital and childrearing roles. Mixed method ANOVAs revealed offspring were less traditional than parents, although there were greater generational differences in attitudes between mothers and daughters and in European American families. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for family roles and relationships.