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Gender bias influence on children
Factors that contribute to gender stereotyping that children observe
Factors that contribute to gender stereotyping that children observe
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Recommended: Gender bias influence on children
Marina Epstein and Monique Ward conduct a fascinating study on the subject of a parent’s influence on the development of a child’s gender beliefs. Strikingly, their study goes beyond most current studies, which have proven that parents create the deepest impact on children when it comes to gender. However, Epstein and Ward focus on specific ways in which parents communicate gender roles to their children. Traidtionally, scholars have believed that the toys kids play with, or the way parents play with girls different than boys, or how a parent demonstrates the roles of men and women, make the greatest impact in the formation of gender roles for a child. However, this study breaks into the directives parents give, gender specific words and the
dialogues children hear. First off, this study survived 291 undergraduates and 259 adolescents with a series of questions that asked the participants to recall words and phrases their parents used with them as a child. For example, the participants were asked to respond to words such as nice and pleasant or big and tough. Also, the participants were asked if traditional gender roles were spoken of or more egalitarian roles in which gender was neutralized. In this study, Epstein and Ward hypothesized that all of the participants would have a clear recollection of either traditional or egalitarian gender beliefs because of their parent’s communication and parent socialization would have a moderate influence on the child’s belief. The results of the survey showed that the undergraduates and adolescents all experienced more communication about egalitarian roles rather than the traditional roles of gender. However, for the children grew up in more traditional gender communication, they had traditional beliefs; whereas, children surrounded with egalitarian communication become to tradition beliefs in gender roles. The reason for this is not understood at this point. Yet what was clearly revealed in this study was the impact a parent’s communication makes upon children as they develop gender beliefs in roles. Finally, this study was limited, admittedly by the authors, because of the small sample of participants, common demographics and the recollection necessity for the question. Yet at the same time, this study reveals the inescapable power of communication whether it is intentional or unintentional.