Parental stereotypes and cognitive processes: evidence for a double standard in parenting roles when reading texts

ABSTRACT

While the characteristics associated with fathers have taken on more maternal traits more recently, a similar shift has not been observed for maternal characteristics. The role of mother remains stereotyped, and those who do not adhere to this often face criticism. This study examines the impact of parental stereotypes on the cognitive processes associated with reading. A sample of 32 individuals read 24 experimental passages introducing a parent (mother or father) in a traditional or non-traditional role, and in a neutral or disambiguating context. Results show a significant interaction between the type of role and gender of the parent on reading times. Simple main effect tests revealed that for traditional roles, fixation durations were longer when the protagonist was a father than when the protagonist was a mother. There was no effect of role type for fathers, yet for mothers, fixation durations were longer when they were depicted in non-traditional roles than when they were depicted in traditional roles. This disruption of information processing of schema incongruent content suggests that mothers’ parenting stereotypes remain anchored in society and are more rigid than those of fathers, supporting the idea of a double standard in parenting roles.

KEYWORDS:

• Stereotype
• gender
• parent
• cognitive processes
• parenting roles

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mylène Ross-Plourde

Mylène Ross-Plourde is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Université de Moncton, Moncton, Canada. Her research currently concentrates on gender stereotypes, parenting roles and biological essentialism.

Mylène Lachance-Grzela is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Université de Moncton, Moncton, Canada. Her current research interests focus on the division of household labor and parenting roles.

Andréanne Charbonneau, PhD, is an academic researcher at Université de Moncton. Her research interest focuses on family and romantic relationships.

Mylène Dumont is a master’s candidate in Psychology at Université de Moncton, Moncton, Canada. Her thesis examines attentional biases in relation to obsessive-compulsive traits.

Annie Roy-Charland is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Université de Moncton, Moncton, Canada. Her research pertains to social cognition. She is mostly interested in perceptual and attention processing in reading, emotional facial expression recognition and in scene perception.