Gender Schematization in Adolescents

Summary

The study explored three aspects of adolescents' schematization of gender roles: the adolescent's perceptions of socially-idealized gender roles (ideal gender roles), the adolescent's perceptions of their own gender role (personal gender role), and the fit between an adolescent's ideal and personal gender roles. Of the participants sampled, 124 were Caucasian, 31 were African-American, 12 were Asian-American, and 2 were Hispanic-American. Participants' family of origin's current yearly incomes ranged from $10,000 to $150,000, with a median income of $34,000. Because parental gender models in one- and two-parent families differ, the gender roles of adolescents raised in one-versus two-parent families may differ. Differences in personal and idealized gender roles were found between students raised in one- versus two-parent families (students from both types of families valued androgyny, a person who has strong masculine and feminine characteristics). A discussion of the results follows.

Key Words:

• Divorce and adolescents
• single parent families
• gender and divorce
• gender and adolescents