Components of Gender-Conformity Pressure: Measurement and Consequences of Awareness, Feelings, and Behaviors
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Schroeder, Kingsley Manning
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 19, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Lynn S. Liben, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Lynn S. Liben, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Dawn Paula Witherspoon, Committee Member
Margaret L. Signorella, Committee Member
Mayra Y Bamaca, Outside Member
Melvin Michael Mark, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- gender development
parent socialization
felt pressure to conform to gender roles - Abstract:
- Despite evidence that almost all children learn and understand gender stereotypes, the degree to which children endorse stereotypes for others, or comply with these stereotypes for themselves differs across individuals. One possible explanation for this inconsistency is individual differences in the degree to which children feel pressure to conform to gender roles. However, prior research has yielded mixed findings on the association between gender conformity pressure and other gender development constructs. This research was designed to elucidate mixed findings by adding specificity to the measurement and conceptualization of felt gender pressure. The construct was divided into three components: awareness of gender-related pressure, feelings of pressure to conform, and conformity behaviors. This new conceptualization establishes the role of felt pressure as an individual-level, rather than environmental, construct and allows for a deeper examination of the association between gender conformity pressure and other developmental outcomes. Participants were 8- to 10-year-old children (38 boys, 47 girls; Mage = 9.02 years) and their parents (82 women, 59 men; Mage = 41.57 years). Children were interviewed about felt gender pressure, gender typicality, gender identity, general social conformity, and general anxiety; parents completed surveys about gender socialization strategies. Data showed preliminary evidence for the new measurement of felt pressure and revealed unique patterns of association between the felt pressure components and study variables of interest, demonstrating the potential for the new measure to elucidate previous mixed findings. Specifically, results showed that parents’ socialization efforts significantly predicted children’s behavioral conformity to pressure, but only when socialization messages were directly communicated. Children’s behavioral conformity was related to gender typicality, such that children who reported more conformity described themselves as less similar to other-gender peers. Findings also showed evidence for the domain-generality of felt pressure, suggesting that children’s conformity tendencies span across contexts. However, this generality depended on the importance of gender to a child’s self-concept: for children whose gender is central to their identity, felt pressure may be specific to gender. This study provides promising foundational evidence supporting the efficacy of the components of felt pressure in predicting important developmental outcomes related to gender and other social domains.