Suchergebnisse

The present study treats parental and friendship interaction as predictors of familial sex role attitudes for each sex, taking into account mother's socioeconomic status and work experience. The data are based on a random sample of college students. The findings show that parental interaction is more important than peer associations in influencing familial sex role attitudes, particularly among men. Mother's socioeconomic status and work experience condition the effects of reference group interaction on a daughter's and son's familial sex role attitudes differently and contrary to expectations. The findings are discussed in the context of reference group theory and attitude formation with a focus on the mother as a role model.

Despite widespread concern about the possibly deleterious effects of television and sex-role stereotypes upon young viewers, little research has been conducted to investigate how children perceive stereotypes in the medium. In this study, seventeen children aged 4½ and 9½ are interviewed individually and asked to discuss features of a series of highly stereotyped male and female behaviors shown on television. The children display considerable knowledge of sex-role conventions and reveal clear ability to relate this to their accounts of the excerpts presented. Children are able to infer feelings and motives appropriately, and offer plausible accounts of "off-screen" behavior by using their existing sex-role knowledge. The findings are discussed with reference to developmental work in script theory, and it is stressed that television "effects" upon the young are best understood in the context of models of developing social understanding.

Background: Marital theorists suggest a link between sex role differences and close relationships for men and women. Marriage is often a context for the activation and expression of sex roles. As marital adjustment is influenced by complementarity of roles between husband and wife, the same could hold true for sex roles as well. Aim: To study the relationship between sex roles and marital adjustment in Indian couples. Methods: The sample consisted of 20 distressed and 20 non-distressed couples from a marital and family therapy centre in the city of Bangalore, India. The measures used included a sociodemographic data sheet, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, the Bem Sex Role Inventory and a semi-structured interview schedule for gendered experiences. Means, percentages and ANOVAS were used to analyse statistically the data. Content analysis was applied on material from the semistructured interview schedule. Results: The study revealed that: (a) the group as a whole showed greater femininity than masculinity; (b) more non-distressed individuals show high androgyny; (c) androgynous dyads show better marital adjustment; and (d) qualitative analysis suggests a trend for couples to move towards more gender-neutral constructions of marriage. Conclusions: The results indicate a link between androgyny and marital adjustment. The results also suggest the type of match between dyads.