This is to certify that the dissertation entitled An Examination of Maternal Sex Role and Its Relationship to College Women’s Sex Role Identity presented by David W. Minden has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Doctor of PhilosophLdegree in Weation. Counseling Psychology and Human Performance Major: Counseling Psychology Major professor natal 4190186; MS U it an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0-12771 MSU LIBRARIES .——. v RETURNING MATERIALS: Place in book drop to remove this checkout from your record. FINES will be charged if book is returned after the date stamped below. AN EXAMINATION OF MATERNAL SEX ROLE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO COLLEGE WOMEN'S SEX ROLE IDENTITY BY David Walter Minden A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Health Education, Counseling Psychology, and Human Performance 1986 I) we 9m Copyright by David W. Minden 1986 ii ABSTRACT AN EXAMINATION OF MATERNAL SEX ROLE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO COLLEGE WOMEN'S SEX ROLE IDENTITY BY David Walter Minden This research investigation was concerned with a fundamental question: do mothers model sex roles for daughters by their own sex roles or by prescribing sex roles to daughters? The investigation reviewed the parenting and sex roles literature which presented findings of a confusing and inconclusive nature. Theoretical literature provided the two models of sex role socialization compared in this study. Psychoanalytic theory predicts that the primary caregivers' sex roles are duplicated by daughters. The second socialization model, newly derived and inferred from a body of neoanalytic theory, based on the fact that caregivers purportedly develop social behavior in males by prescribing roles to sons, predicts that caregivers, primarily mothers, might also prescribe to their daughters. Thus, on the matter of the elements a mother uses to socialize her daughter, the two theories diverge: neoanalytic theory proposes mothers use a prescriptive sex role, psychoanalytic theory proposes it is her own internalized sex role. These two sex roles, mothers' own and mothers' prescribed, could be studied to determine which was relatively more influential on daughters. If mothers were asked their self-describing prescribed sex role, influence would be suggested by the sex role more similar to daughters. To examine the research question, pairs of collegiate women and their mothers were asked to respond to a sex roles questionnaire. One hundred and two collegians from northeastern and midwestern colleges and their mothers participated in this project. The results of tests of the main hypotheses revealed that daughters were neither more similar to prescribed (ideal) characteristics nor the mothers' selves, for both masculinity and femininity. However, relationships were found between all three sex roles. Thus, sex roles could exert influence on each other in undetected ways: prescriptions and selves may equally influence daughters. Or daughters could equally influence, in a retrograde manner, their mothers' roles. Alternatively, extra-familial factors may equally influence daughters' and mothers' sex roles. The results of the tests of the demographic hypotheses revealed that mothers‘ femininity was negatively related and their masculinity was positively related to nontraditional employment. Thus, it is possible that the mothers' demographic characteristics indirectly influence sex roles. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As with any project of such magnitude, it is hard to believe it is finally completed. There are many to thank for this fact. Bill Farquhar, my chairman, thankyou for your support and encouragement, and for making the best of long-distance work. Richard Houang, for your persistence and willingness to commit the hours to guide me through the statistics. Dave Wenger, committee member, thankyou for your attention to detail, and for staying on when your change in tenure no longer required you to do so. Dianne Singleton, commmittee member, thankyou for joining the committee at a late date, and for your continuing interest in the topic. The students, their mothers and the faculty, thankyou for your time and effort to inform me and the public on this timely subject. And, finally, Pamela, my companion for life, thankyou for your support. Now you know the answer to the question you asked so innocently -- "So, how long does a dissertation take?" -iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction Need for Research Purpose of the Study Hypothesis Definitions of Terms Theory Women's Masculinity Discussion of the Theory Application of the Theory to the Research Hypotheses Chapter 2: Review of the Literature Discussion of the Literature Summary Chapter 3: Design Limitations of the Study Sample Procedures Instrument Research Hypotheses Main Hypotheses Related Hypotheses Analysis Indices of Similarity iv Page 40‘wa“) 10 22 25 26 26 27 31 32 33 33 33 34 35 Test Statistics Summary Chapter 4: Results Hypotheses About Sex Role SimilaritO Supplementary Analyses Hypotheses About Demographic Characteristics Summary Chapter 5: Summary and Recommendations Limitations Conclusions and Recommendations Appendices A: Bem Sex Role Inventory B: Bem Sex Role Inventory Describing Daughter C: Contingency Tables and Chi-Square Test of Independance of Demographics and Sex Role Guidelines for Haberman Analyses D: Demographic Sheet Bibliography 41 43 44 48 51 52 54 55 61 69 71 73 75 4.3 LIST OF TABLES Summary of Demographic Characteristics of Sample Daughters Summary of Demographic Characteristics of Sample Mothers Example: Mother-Daughter Pair's Responses to Sex Role Survey Example: Index of Similarity #1 Discrepencies Between Daughter's Average Score and Mother's Two Average Scores Example: Index of Similarity #2 Page 29 30 35 36 37 Absolute Values of Discrepencies Between Daughter's and Mother's Two Scores Example: Index of Similarity #3 Average Absolute Values of Differences Between Daughter's and Mother's Responses T-test of Significance of Differences of Similarity 38 45 T-test of Significance of Differences of Similarity 46 Using Each Mother-Daughter Pairs' Differences T-test of Significance of Differences of Similarity 47 Using Differences in Ratings of Adjectives Contingency Table of Sex Role of Mother and Daughter 48 Product Moment Correlations of Mothers' vi Sex Roles 49 4.6 Product Moment Correlations of Mothers' Two Masculine Sex Roles with Daughters' Masculine Sex Roles 4.7 Product Moment Correlations of Mothers' Two Feminine Sex Roles with Daughters' Feminine Sex Roles 4.8 Contingency Table of Mothers' and Sex Role vii Sex-Typed Employment 50 51 53 LIST OF FIGURES 3.1 Example: Classifying Sex Roles Using Bem's Four-Way Scheme 3.2 Z-statistic for Testing Consistency viii Page 40 41 Chapter 1 I N TRODUCTI ON Need for Research Traditional psychoanalytic theory explains that feminine and masculine sex roles are transmitted by the modeling of same-sexed adult caregivers. A body of neoanalytic theory, however, gives credence to children's primary exposure to female adult caregivers, and posits that masculine sex role is transmitted by indirect means through mothers' prescribing masculine roles. ’ Although current research has described parents' characteristics that affect children's sex roles, there has been no research directly studying how caregiver's personal sex role and their proffered role prescriptions affect their offspring's sex roles differently. This particular area is important because of the stage of sex role transition that women are presently experiencing in American society. Women are no longer restricting their life planning to traditional roles of wife, mother and secretary/housekeeper, but are broadening their roles to include tasks and goals that are typically thought of as masculine. page 2 with the new roles for women a question arises: do mothers rely on their own sex role to socialize daughters or do they socialize by prescribing a second sex role? Studies of a descriptive nature are needed in order to begin to understand the pattern of maternal sex role transmittal. Purpose _£ the Study The purpose of the study was to. investigate the relationship between daughters' sex roles and both their mothers' prescribed and their mothers' own sex roles. The aim was to explore whether daughters' sex roles would be differentially related to mothers' actual and proffered sex roles, for both masculinity and femininity. Hypothesis Daughters' sex roles will be differentially related to mothers' prescribed sex roles and mothers' self-described sex roles. page 3 Definitions gf Terms Research in sex roles has often been complicated by the use of a variety of confusing terms. In the present study ggx gglgg are defined as the societal expectations for the behavior of men and of women. Thus, sex role refers to the shared cultural beliefs about what behaviors should be associated with members of each sex} Sex role and g3; gglg identity also refer to the individual's evaluation of self as masculine or feminine according to the societal norms? The terms gender 52;; and sex-typed £215 are sometimes used interchangeably with sex role. For this study's purpose gglf or selves as referring to mothers and daughters also means sex role. In addition, prescription or prescriptive roles refers to sex roles that mothers wish to inculcate in their daughters, and that are separate from mothers' self-described sex roles. Differentiation is the degree to which one identifies with a sex role. Thus, a person who endorses few masculine and feminine traits is undifferentiated; many endorsed indicates differentiated. Also, the body of neoanalytic theorists proposing the existence of prescriptive sex roles will from here on be l. Donelson, E., and Gullahorn, S.F. Women: A psychology perspective. N.Y.: John Wiley and Sons, 1977. 2. Kagan, J. Acquisition and significance of sex-typing and sex-role identity, In M.L. Hoffman and L.W. Hoffman (Eds.) Review pf child develo ment research, (Vol. 1). N.Y.: Russell Sage Foundation, 1564. page 4 referred to as neoanalytic theory or the neoanalytic theorists. Theory Psychoanalytic Theory of Sex Role Development Two variations of psychoanalytic theory were selected as models for this research because of three major assumptions they share -- sex role identity established at an early age, sex role immutability, parental influence on sex role. Also, they represent opposite sides of the debate over how sex role identity is formed. The different views are represented by the traditional theorists (Chodorow, Freud, Stoller, Tyson)1 and the neoanalytic theorists (Hartup, Lynn, Roessler, Slater). The differences and their implications for the development of sex role identity will be discussed below, followed by a discussion of how the theories relate to the present study. l. Chodorow, N. Reproduction of Mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press, 197?. Freud, Sigmund. On narcissism: An introduction (1914), in S. Freud's Collected Papers, (Vol.1). N.Y.: Basic Books, Inc., 1959. - Hartup, W.W. Some correlates of parental imitation in young children. Child Develo ent, 1962, 3;, 85-86. Lynn, D.B. A note on sex differences in the development of masculine and feminine identification. Psychological Review, 1959, §§, 126-135 Roessler, R.T. Sexuality and identity: Masculine differentiation and feminine constancy. Adolescence, 1971,§, 187-196. page 5 Both theories emphasize that children are internally motivated to identify with parents and develop a sex role. Traditional theorists propose and neoanalytic theorists concur that both boys' and girls' first important relationship is with their mother, a relationship initially of total dependence. Needing mother and fearing a loss of her love, the child identifies with her. This form of identification is called anaclitic identification. Somewhere between the ages of 3 and 5 years, the process for boys begins to differ from that of girls. For the boy, the identification with his mother gets complicated by his .awareness of anatomical differences between the sexes. He shifts identification. The shift to new objects of identification and the motivation for it are where traditional theorists and neoanalytic theorists part company. Traditional theory contends that the boy recognizes father as a rival for his mother's affection, fears castration, represses his desire for his mother and identifies with his father - the Oedipal triangle. Neoanalytic theory posits that the boy wants to learn to be like father but is almost exclusively in the company of his mother, who, responding 'to the boy's need to identify with maleness, provides him with a description of a somewhat Slater, P.E. Toward, a dualistic theory of identification. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 1961, 1, 113-126. Stoller, R.J. The sense o ma eness. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 1965, 33, 207-218. Tyson, P. A developmental line of gender identity, gender role, and choice of love object. Journal 9: Egg American Psychoanalytic Association, 1982, 32, 61-86. page 6 stereotyped, culturally-defined masculine role. Boys, by both theories, are in a mother-father-son triangle, but by traditional theory fathers arethreatening while by neoanalytic theory fathers are merely distant. Both theories propose this shift in identification acts as a crucial element' in -boys' sex role development, facilitating the acquisition of characteristics similar to fathers. Sons try to be like fathers, incorporating fathers' rules, values and sex role behavior. This incorporation is proposed by traditional theory to occur through imitation, by neoanalytic theory, through mothers' descriptions of father. However, both traditional and neoanalytic theories agree that girls need make no such shift in identification. By virtue of her and her mother's similar anatomy, the girl realizes that she cannot replace her mother in her father's affections and continues the anaclitic identification with her mother. Women's Masculinity Recent formulations of the relationship between gender (maleness, femaleness) and sex role identity (masculinity, femininity) have .challenged the assumption that psychologically healthy women should identify only with feminine models. Based on their being without psychological malaise or homosexual tendencies, based on the greater prestige, esteem and, especially, the economic opportunities page 7 afforded them, women exhibiting masculine characteristics, some researchers say, may be no worse off and in some cases better off than other sex-typed women.1 Discussion pf the Theory Because neither of the formulations directly describes how a woman can develop masculine characteristics, the process had to be inferred. Traditional theory assumes that an individual's sex role is the consequence of identification with the same sexed parent. The development of "masculinity in women could be explained within traditional theorists's framework if women's mothers possessed masculine characteristics. Neoanalytic theorists assume that male and female individuals' sex roles are both derived from feminine mothers, but femininity in females from imitation and masculinity in males from mothers' prescribed notions of maleness. The development of women's masculinity could be explained by neoanalytic theorists' framework if the women's mothers, who are thought by virtue of their socio-cultural epoch to be primarily feminine, respond to the girls' needs to exhibit maleness for it's cultural advantages. Mothers could provide for daughters the same descriptions of the 1. Bem, 8.1. The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal 2; Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1974, 32, 155-162. ’ page 8 somewhat stereotyped, culturally-defined masculine role they provide for their sons. A logical extension of this neoanalytic explanation is that mothers could prescribe socially appropriate feminine and masculine sex roles to their daughters regardless of mothers' own sex role. Thus, mothers might seek to provide daughters with a sex role equally masculine and feminine as their own, or a less masculine and more feminine role, or more of both, etc., through all the possible combinations of sex roles. As such, in both theories girls would develop sex role characteristics by identification; however, the object of identification would differ. By traditional theory, girls follow their mothers' personal sex roles, by neoanalytic theory, girls follow their mothers' prescribed sex roles. Application g; Theory £3 _hg Research Hypothesis In the present study, the research hypothesis about the relationship between collegiate womens' sex roles and mothers' actual and prescribed sex roles is of an exploratory nature. Since in neoanalytic theory mothers are expected to influence their daughters most by prescriptions, neoanalytic theory is supported if mothers' prescribed sex roles are related to daughters' sex roles to a greater degree than are mothers' own sex roles. Since in traditional theory, mothers are expected to influence their daughters page 9 most by the mothers' own sex role, traditional theory is supported if mothers' own sex roles are more related to daughters' sex roles than are the prescribed roles. page 11 subtracting the masculinity score from the femininity score. Parental identification scores were indicated by the difference between daughters' scores and each corresponding parents' scores on the semantic differential. The authors were interested in any differences between the three groups of daughters - from intact, mother-absent and father-absent families. No differences in self-concept or sex-role identity were found between the groups. Daughters' were less identified with mothers in the father-absent group than were daughters in the intact family group. These father-absent daughters were also less identified with mothers than daughters in the intact family group were with fathers. No differences in girls' sex roles were found in the different families. In their discussion of the unexpected finding of "no correlations” between parent and child sex-role the authors suggest that by adolescence - the age of most of the daughters in this study - daughters' advanced maturity, parents'changes or both may have changed the relationship between fathers' and daughters' sex-role observed in other studies of young women. Spence and Helmreich studied the relationship between sex-role identities of students, of their parents, and of the parents as perceived by the students. The authors designed two measures: the Personal Attributes Questionnaire page 11 subtracting the masculinity score from the femininity score. Parental identification scores were indicated by the difference between daughters' scores and each corresponding parents' scores on the semantic differential. The authors were interested in any differences between the three groups of daughters - from intact, mother-absent and father-absent families. No differences in self-concept or sex-role identity were found between the groups. Daughters' were less identified with mothers in the father-absent group than were daughters in the intact family group. These father-absent daughters were also less identified with mothers than daughters in the intact family group were with fathers. No differences in girls' sex roles were found in the different families. In their discussion of the unexpected finding of ”no correlations” between parent and child sex-role the authors suggest that by adolescence - the age of most of the daughters in this study - daughters' advanced maturity, parents'changes or both may have changed the relationship between fathers' and daughters' sex-role observed in other studies of young women. Spence and Helmreich studied the relationship between sex-role identities of students, of their parents, and of the parents as perceived by the students. The authors designed two measures: the Personal Attributes Questionnaire page 12 was designed to measure sex-role traits, and was given to students to rate themselves, to parents to rate themselves, and to students to rate their parents; the Attitudes Towards Women Scale was designed to measure profeminist, egalitarian attitudes and was given to both students and their parents to rate themselvesJ- Subjects were classified by score into four groups: masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated. Perceived parental sex roles were measured by a modified version of the sex role measure. The authors intended to replicate (previous studies suggesting males' fathers' involvement but both females' parents' involvement was associated with development of sex-typed or androgynous characteristics. They hypothesized that male students would be more influenced by fathers' sex role and females by both parents' sex roles. The parents' self-ratings and student's self-ratings of sex role did not support either hypothesis. However, the' following trends were reported: (1) parent couples with androgynous fathers and mothers having some femininity tended to produce more androgynous and less undifferentiated sons than other couple types; (2) more androgynous and less undifferentiated girls were produced in couple types where either mother or father were androgynous and the other parent was not undifferentiated than in families where neither parent was androgynous and fathers were also not O; 1. Spence,J.T. and Helmreich, R.L. Masculinity an femininity: Their s cholo ical dimensionsi correlates an antecedents. Austin: UniverSity of Texas Press, 1 78. O. page 13 feminine. The relationships between the students' perceived ratings of their parents and students' self ratings were low but significant, and were as follows: (1) when father or both parents are perceived androgynous, male students are more likely to be androgynous and less likely to be undifferentiated than other couple types: (2) girls are more likely to be androgynous and less likely undifferentiated when either parent is perceived androgynous. These results indicate that sons' sex roles were related to their perceptions of their fathers' sex role, while daughters' sex roles were related to their perceptions of both or either parents' sex role. In addition, correlations between students' ratings of parents and parents' self ratings were modest but significant, ranging from .20 to .51, with greater contiguity between parents' self ratings and daughters' perceived parental sex roles than between parents' self-ratings and sons' perceived parental sex roles. The authors interpreted the results to mean that fathers influence sons' sex-role more than mothers do, while both parents influence daughters' sex roles. In addition, the authors concluded that there was veridicality between students' perceptions of their parents and parents' self image, with daughters 'better predictors of parents' responses than sons. Ward explored the possibility of a relationship between page 14 children's sex-role and two sex role socialization processes - learning a culturally defined role or parental imitation} The It Scale for Children was used to measure sex-role and the Hartup Imitation Scale to assess parental imitation. It Scale scores were adjusted to reflect sex-appropriate tendencies and were modified to prevent bias. Subjects' sex role scores were determined by preference for sex-typed toys: this forced-choice type of scale results in each subject categorized as masculine or feminine (e.g. more trucks than dolls selected equals masculine child). Father-imitation and mother-imitation scores were determined by how often the child agrees with or imitates the mother doll or the father doll in a projective doll play situation. The author investigated whether: (1) boys would be high in culturally defined masculine sex role (2) they would be higher in this than girls would be in culturally defined feminine sex role, and (3) boys masculine sex-role would predominate over father imitation to a greater extent than girls' feminine sex role would predominate over mother imitation. It was also expected that (4) girls' mother imitation would be high, (5) they would be higher on mother imitation than boys would be on father imitation, and (6) girls mother imitation would predominate over feminine sex role to a greater extent than boys' father imitation would predominate over masculine sex role. 1.Ward, W. A developmental line of gender identity, gender role, and choice of love object. Journal 2; the American Psychoanalytic Association, 1982, g9, 61-86. page 15 The results for boys were consistent with all the hypotheses. The boys scored high in masculine sex role, they scored significantly higher in masculine sex role than girls did in feminine sex role, and in relation to the girls' scores the boys scored significantly higher in masculine sex role than they did in father imitation. Both sexes scored low in same-sexed imitation, just barely in the sex appropriate range. Although in relation to the boys' scores the girls scored significantly higher in mother imitation than in feminine preference, this result was produced by the girls' very low feminine sex role score and not by high mother imitation. Because the feminine sex-role was the opposite end on a bipolar continuum from masculine sex-role, girls' low feminine sex role translated as a high culturally defined masculine sex role: indeed, girls were as masculine as boys. The authors interpreted the results to mean that girls' sex-role was more masculine than feminine. They suggested that either broad cultural factors may be more important to sex role than familial interactions, or third-grade girls may be influenced to prefer masculine toys by seeing the advantages to being male in a middle-class white society. An earlier study by Hartup explored the relation between children's imitation of parents, children's sex-role and attitudes of mothersJ'Parental imitation was measured by 1.Hartup, W.W. Some correlates of parental imitation in page 16 the Hartup Imitation Schedule, sex role by the It Scale for Children, and parent attitudes by the Parental Attitude Research Instrument. The following hypotheses were investigated: (1) the most feminine girls and masculine boys would imitate same-sexed rather than opposite-sexed parents, (2) boys would exceed ‘girls in the extent to which they imitate a father model in preference to mother model, and girls would exceed boys in the extent to which they imitate a mother model; (3) older subjects would imitate same-sexed models more than younger subjects would. In addition, the relationship of maternal attitudes to same-sexed parental imitation was explored. The results gave only partial support to Hypothesis (1). Girls' femininity was related to the generalized tendency to imitate mother in preference to father; however, boys' masculinity was independent of the tendency to imitate father in preference to mother, indicating that girls' but not boys' sex-role is related to same-sexed parental imitation. Boys chose to imitate fathers more tha girls did, and girls imitated mothers more than boys did, supporting hypothesis (2). The third hypothesis was not supported - subject age was not related to parent imitation. Authoritarian maternal attitudes were related to same-sex imitation in both girls and boys. Also, girls' imitation of mothers alone was related to maternal criticism of husband and maternal dislike of homemaking. Furthermore, boys' young children. Child Development, 1962, 33, 85-96. page 17 imitation of fathers alone was found related to maternal attitudes of suppressing boys' independance and mothers' wanting to maintain a close involvement with the boy. The author interpreted that each sex identified with same-sexed parents but that boys learn masculine behavior outside the imitative relationship with fathers. In addition, the authors suggest that preference for same-sexed imitation is related to parental reinforcement of this pattern. The authors suggest that their exploratory findings on maternal attitudes' affect on same-sex imitation may be related to a pattern of a vigorous mother concerned with similarity and punitive of father-imitation for girls, and strongly reinforcing father imitation for boys. Hetherington studied the possibility of a relationship betweeen parental dominance and children's sex role, parent-child similarity and parental imitation} The It Scale for Children, a parental dominance measure, an adjective check-list of personality traits and an imitation task were used. The children's father- and mother-imitation was scored by counting the number of times their choice of the ”prettiest picture" was similar to corresponding parent's choices. Mother or father dominance was determined by parent pairs' joint agreements to use one parent's solution to a problem in preference to the other's. Parents' friends 1.Hetherington, E.M. Measurement-of masculine and feminine sex role identities as independent dimensions. Journal 2; Personality and Social Psychology, 1965, 2, 188-193. page 18 rated parents' personalities and children's teachers rated children's personalities. Sex-role preference was measured by the It Scale (as explained on page 13 of text, above). The following hypotheses were investigated: (1) children would imitate and have similar sex-role to the most dominant parent, particularly if it is the father, and father dominance was predicted to be more important for boys' sex-role than mother dominance for girls' sex-role; (2) girls would imitate increasingly with age while boys would imitate less. Results for the first hypothesis were as follows: boys were found to be more imitative of, to be more similar to and to be more like the sex role of the dominant parent; father-dominance produced girls with personalities like both parents, while mother-dominance produced girls like mother only. Girls in mother and father dominant homes were not different in sex role identity, and both boys and girls imitated the dominant parent more than the passive parent. The second hypothesis was also partially supported. Although no differential trends with age for the two sexes were found, girls imitated more than boys. However, neither fathers nor mothers were imitated more than the other. The author suggests that identification, especially in boys, is affected by the dominant parent, and that boys in mother dominant homes may have difficulty forming masculine sex-role and imitating fathers. She further suggests that dominant fathers are necessary to facilitate the shift in page 19 boys' identification from mothers to fathers, but, since normal identification for girls involves sustaining and intensifying the mother-child relationship, father dominance may do little to disrupt the girl's primary identification. The author concludes that "...the role of dominance in identification appears to be consistent with the psychoanalytic stress on the great importance of 'identification with the aggressor' in boys identification, and its lesser importance in the identification of girls."1 A study by Faughey examined the possibility of a relationship between women's sex-roles and their perceptions of their mothers' sex roles and their father's notions of ideal women.1 The author considered the study to be of an exploratory nature: she did not formulate specific directional hypotheses. All perceived fathers' ideal women wee feminine: when daughters perceived mothes'sex role as feminine, too, the daughters identified with the congruent feminine role. However, when daughters perceived mother's role as nontraditional, daughters were likely to identify with fathers' ideal women, especially when the mothers were perceived as low in nurturance and deference. These 1.Hetherington, op. cit., p.193. 2.Faughey, K.P. Parental model identification and sex role typing in the daughter. Dissertation Abstracts International,1981, 52, 1585 (abstract). page 20 daughters were likely to identify with mothers only when fathers' support was low or fathers were seen as endorsing an undifferentiatied model for women. Almost half the subjects identified with neither model and were significantly more likely than .others studied to be nontraditionally sex-typed. The authors concluded that father's role playing with daughter is an important factor in her identification with mother. The identification is primarily determined by his support and by the degree of differentiation of his model for daughter. Smith and Self explored whether maternal sociopsychological variables influenced girls' sex rolesi The authors constructed a 21-item inventory to measure sex role attitudes. The authors predicted that mothers' sex role attitudes better predict young women's sex roles than would maternal age, marital status, education or occupation. Mothers' sex-role attitudes were found related to daughters' sex-roles attitudes. However, this was true for college-educated mothers but not for mothers without college education -- maternal education interacted with mothers' sex-role attitude to predict daughters' sex-role attitudes. The authors interpreted these results to mean that l.Smith, M.E. and Self, G.D. The congruence between mothers' and duaghters' sex role attitudes: A research nbte. Journal 9; Marriage and the Family, 1980, 42, 105-109. page 21 while maternal attitudes appear more important than maternal demographic variables, the specific variable maternal college education also appears important to daughters' sex-role. The authors suggest that a mother's college education could lead to her increased status in the family and, enhance mother's position as a role model. Daughter might more likely adopt her mother's attitudes than were mother in a subordinate position. The author suggests that this is particularly likely to occur, "if the mother is perceived to be dissatisfied in that position (as homemaker)?" The authors also posit that college educated mothers may communicate more frequently with their daughters than mothers without a college education and so may have greater opportunity to transmit their values. 1. Smith and Self,gp cit., p. 109. page 22 Discussion 93 the Literature Neoanalytic and traditional theory are both only partially supported by the literature on women's parental sex role identification. The results from the Ward (1973) and Hartup (1962) studies partially support masculinity's deriving from a culturally defined model. Although Spence and Helmreich's (1978) study found no relationship between students' and their parents' sex roles, the study was similar to the present study. The authors suggest that further study in this area is important. The Faughey (1981) study's findings support traditional theory's contention of a relationship between sex-role and identification with parents: the opposite-sexed parents' notion of an ideal sex-role may influence children. But this only applied to about half the subjects while the other 50% derived their sex role identities from other sources. Sex role prescriptions could be one of these other influences. In addition, parents' influence on daughters' sex role was measured indirectly, through the daughter's perception of her parents. This method, which may only measure the daughter's projection, is likely less accurate than directly measuring parents' sex roles. Hetherington's (1965) study, with dominant mothers producing feminine sons, would initially seem to support traditional theory's notion that the same-sexed parents page 23 influence sex-role identity, or, in this case, that the lack of strong fathers produces feminine boys. However, mothers' own sex role influencing boys to femininity is but one possible explanation: one can imagine a dominant mother placing a lower value on masculinity than a ‘non-dominant mother and neglecting to prescribe an appropriate masculine role for her son. By the same token, an acquiescent mother could still be the more important socializer of the two parents if she patterned hr prescriptions to her son after the nearby dominant figure, her husband. The Smith and Self (1980) findings seemingly only support the notion of sex-role socialization by same-sexed modeling. However, the authors, in finding mothers' education interacting with parenting attitudes, suggest that college-educated mothers are dissatisfied with their own roles. These mothers might frequently communicate with daughters and might offer role conceptions verbally that they could not model in their own sex roles - they could prescribe roles, as suggested by neoanalytic theory. Although at first glance Stephens and Day's (1979) results apparently supported neither theory, father-absence producing daughters as high in masculinity as other groups is arguably consistent with neoanalytic theory. Fathers may be unimportant and mothers important to the daughter's masculinity. I Hartup's (1962) results could arguably support both theories' or only neoanalytic theory. Same-sexed parents influenced males' and females' sex roles more than page 24 opposite-sexed parents, supporting traditional views, but boys learned masculinity some way other than father-imitation, suggesting neoanalytic theorists's prescribing-mother-as-socializer view. In addition, one can question the assumption that because imitation occurs so has socialization. Indeed, mothers may prescribe and then direct imitation: boys could learn a masculine role from mothers' prescriptions, then be directed by mothers to watch fathers and other male models. Finally, same-sexed parents' sex roles, although not measured, were assumed to influence their children. For example, a feminine daughter who chose the same candy as a mother doll (imitation) was assumed to derive femininity from “her mother; however, were this daughter's mother herself masculine, the daughter's femininity would derive from another source. Direct measure of mothers' sex roles would have been better. The Ward study (1973) partially supports neoanalytic theory. Males identify with a more masculine and culturally-defined role than females, suggesting males might heed somewhat stereotyped prescriptions. Also, girls were masculine- rather than feminine-identified, suggesting that their mothers, at least some of whom are likely feminine, socialize daughters to be masculine in some other way. They might hold and prescribe from a second, masculine sex role. page 25 Lumen The literature presented indicated no studies which clearly support or disconfirm whether women identify more with mothers' prescribed sex roles or personal sex roles. Nor has the notion of multiple sex roles -- prescribed and self sex roles -- within the socializing person been examined. In addition, when studies attempt to relate parents' sex roles to daughters' sex roles the researchers rarely directly measure parents' roles. The present study, therefore, has theory to support it but no empirical studies. This fact indicates that research must be generated to test the pattern of women's maternal sex role identification. In addition, although there is evidence that demographics and sex role are related, little research has been done in this area. . page 27 fathers will not be included; therefore, any resulting findings or conclusions can not be generalized to the population of women raised by a single father. Furthermore, because this study's data are correlational, only relationships are examined. Later research will have to be directed to causality. Sample The sample was composed of 102 undergraduate female volunteers enrolled at northeastern and midwestern colleges, and their mothers. (Daughters were between 17 and 45 years of age, with most (96%) 17 to 23 years of age. Although minority races were represented, most daughters (89%) were caucasian. The range of college classes were represented, with percentages for less than l-, 2-, and 3-years of college of 32,27,and 27%, respectively. Most were currently unemployed (70%); most of the remaining employed daughters (89%) worked in traditionally female fields, such as secretary, teacher or nurse. A great majority of daughters worked summers (92%). The range of birth order was represented, with respective percentages for only, first, middle and youngest of 5, 36, 34, and 28%. ’ Mothers' age ranged from 30 years on upwards, with over half (68%) 46 or older. They were racially identical to page 28 their daughters. Most mothers (75%) had some college experience, and of these most (64%) had graduated college. Most worked (77%), and most working mothers (67%) were employed in traditionally female fields. Work history varied widely with respective percentages for "never worked”, ”summer work", "relinquished work”, ”relinquished but then resumed work” and ”started work when child care finished" of 4,1,24,50, and 8%. The range of birth order was represented, with respective percentages for only, first, middle and youngest of 8, 40, 22, and 28%. Most mothers (80%) were married. A large plurality made over $40,000 a year (43%) with about an equal proportion of the rest making less than ten (11%), ten to twenty (13%), twenty to thirty (17%), and thirty to forty thousand dollars a year (15%). Subjects were not asked whether income was the mothers' own or the families: therefore, these figures may be higher than expected. Tables 3.1 and 3.2 summarize the afore-mentioned sample characteristics. page 29 Table 3.1 Summary of Demographic Characteristics of Sample Daughters Characteristic Percent of Daughters Age, in years 17-18 11 19 28 20 21 21-23 34 24 and older 4 Race Caucasian 89 Minority (Asian, Black, Hispanic, Other) 11 Years College 0-1 33 2 27 3 27 Current Job None 70 Traditional Women's Work 22 Nontraditional Women's Work 3 Work History Summer Work 92 Other (never or continuous) 8 Birth Order Only 5 First 36 Middle 34 Youngest 28 page 30 Table 3.2 Summary of Demographic Characteristics of Sample Mothers Characteristic Percent of Mothers Age 30-45 36 45 and older 60 Race Caucasian . 89 Minority (Asian, Black, Hispanic, Other) 11 Highest Grade School High School, Trade School or below 25 Collegian 75. College Year Completed 0 19 l 12 2 9 3 4 4 20 Some Graduate Graduate ‘ 10 Graduate Degree 26 Current Job None 23 Traditional Women's Work 51 Nontraditional Women's Work 26 Work History Never 4 Summers 1 Continuous . 24 Relinquished 13 Resume When Kids Gone 50 Start When Kids Gone 8 Birth Order . Only 8 First 40 Middle 22 Youngest 28 page 31 Table 3.2 (cont'd.) Marital Status Married 80 Single 20 Income Up to 10,000 11 10,000- 20,000 13 20,000- 30,000 17 30,000- 40,000 15 40,000 plus 43 Procedures The data collection involved: (1) Obtaining permission from faculty to solicit volunteers from their classes, (2) asking the classes for volunteers who would participate in the study and would allow their mothers to be contacted; (3) distributing the consent form, the Bem Sex Role Inventory, the demographic survey and envelopes on which students wrote their own and their mothers' addresses, (4) collecting the envelopes and asking the volunteers not to discuss the survey with their mothers until mothers returned them to the researcher; (5) mailing the forms and instruments and stamped envelopes to the mothers: (6) returning to collect the students' completed forms and the instruments, and briefing the students on the study's nature; (7) receiving mothers' completed forms and instruments in the mail. page 32 Instrument The Bem Sex role Inventory (BSRI) and a modification of the BSRI were used to measure sex role. Subjects rated, on a 7-point scale, the degree to which twenty stereotypically masculine adjectives and twenty stereotypically feminine adjectives characterized themselves. They did the same for twenty contextual, neutral items. Because the standard BSRI asks subjects to rate how the items characterized themselves, the (instructions were modified to ascertain characteristics making up mothers' prescribed sex roles. The modified version instructed subjects to rate the degree to which the items characterized ”the way your daughter should be in the world today.” The instrument was assumed reliable from previous research indicating a test-retest reliability ranging from .76 up to .94.1 The test was also assumed immune to social desirability responding from previous research 'indicating correlations with the Marlowe-Crown social desirability scale ranging from -.04 to .21? The BSRI and the modified BSRI can be found in Appendices A a B. 1. Bem, S.L. Bem Sex Role Inventory Professional Manual. Consulting Psychologist Press, Inc., Palo Alto, 1981, p. 14. I 2. Bem, op. cit., p. 15. page 33 Research Hypotheses The study intended to determine the influence of mothers' prescriptions and selves on daughters' sex roles. Daughters' roles were compared for similarity to mothers' two roles. Greater influence was indicated by greater similarity of one of mothers' two roles to daughter than the other. Because the study was exploratory in nature, all hypotheses were tested at the .05 level. Main Hypothesis Mothers can articulate their own sex role and a prescribed set of sex role traits they feel are best for their daughters in today's world. The research will explore whether daughters' sex roles are more similar to one of mothers' roles than to the other, to the prescribed or actual roles of mothers. Related Hypothesis Mothers'and daughters' demographic characteristics may affect sex role. The effects of the following on sex role will be examined: age, race, education, sex-typed employment, work history, birth order, income and marital status. page 34 Analysis A way to determine sex role similarity was needed. Indices were created by examining the discrepancy between mothers' two sex roles and daughters' sex roles, as indicated by daughters' and mothers' sex role surveys. In table 3.3, responses to the twenty sex role adjectives for one mother-daughter pair are presented. These responses will be used to illustrate the three indices considered. page 35 Table 3.3 Example: Mother-Daughter Pair's Responses to Sex Role Survey Daughter's Response 6 5 7 6 3 6 5 6 3 6 3 6 4 1 3 2 4 6 4 6 Mother's Response for Daughter: Prescribed 6 4 6 4 3 2 3 4 5 2 S 6 2 2 3 l 2 4 4 7 Mother's Response: Actual 7 7 7 6 7 6 6 3 5 6 5 6 5 3 5 4 5 6 5 7 Averaged daughter response= 4.75 Averaged mother "prescribed" response- 3.75 Averaged mother ”actual" responsea 5.55 Indices Used for Comparison Index 1. Daughters' 20 responses and each of mothers' two sets of twenty responses (prescribed and actual) were averaged. The averaged daughters' response was subtracted from each of the mothers' two averaged responses, prescribed and actual, to yield two discrepancy scores for the mother-daughter pair. As shown in Table 3.4 for the example the index for the prescription and the daughter was -1.0 and the index for the actual and the daughter was .80. page 36 Table 3.4 Example: Computation Using Index 1 Discrepancies Between Daughter's Average Score and Mother's Two Average Scores Prescribed-minus daughter 3.75-4.75= -l.0 Actual-minus-daughter 5.55-4.75: .80 Index 2. Daughters' 20 responses and each of mothers' two sets of twenty responses (prescribed and actual) were averaged. The average daughter's response was subtracted from each of the mothers two average responses, prescribed and actual. The absolute differences between daughters' averaged response and mothers' two averaged responses was obtained. As shown in Table 3.5 for the example the absolute difference between the prescription and the daughters, -1.0, becomes 1.0, a difference of equal magnitude. That is, both are greater than the actual-minus-daughter difference (.80) by .20, regardless of sign. page 37 Table 3.5 Example: Index 2 Absolute Discrepancies Between Daughter's and Mother's Two Scores Prescribed-minus-daughter 3.75-4.75= |-1.0|= 1.0 Actual-minus-daughter 5.55-4.75= |.80|= .80 Index 3. Each of the daughters' 20 responses to adjectives were subtracted from each of the corresponding mothers' responses, and this was done separately for the prescribed and the actual sex roles. The absolute differences between the daughters' and corresponding mothers' responses were averaged to yield two discrepancy scores for the mother-daughter pair. As shown in Table 3.6 for the example data (from Table 3.3) the index for the prescription and the daughter was 1.45 and the index for the actual and daughter was 1.25. page 38 Table 3.6 Example: Index 3 Average Absolute Differences Between Daughter's and Mother's Responses Prescribed minus daughter 0 l l 2 0 4 2 2 2 4 2 0 2 1 0 l 2 2 0 1 Actual minus daughter 1 2 0 0 4 0 l 3 2 O 2 0 1 2 2 2 1 0 l 1 average prescribed minus daughter 1.45 average actual minus daughter 1.25 In addition, mother-daughter pairs were classified with Bem's method comparing sex role scores against normative median scores. As shOwn in Table 3.7, the four classifications are: masculinea high masculine,~ low feminine; feminines high feminine, low masculine; undifferentiated- low masculine, low feminine; androgynous: high masculine, high feminine.1 If daughters and mothers fell into the same group, they were similar, if not, they were dissimilar. While all other indices consider masculinity and femininity separately, this approach considers them together. As shown in Figure 3.1, for the example the 1. Bem, S.L. Bem Sex Role Inventory Professional Manual. Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc., Palo Alto, 1981. page 39 daughter's sex role is feminine and so she is similar to her mother's prescribed feminine sex role, but is dissimilar to her mother's actual androgynous sex role. page 41 Test Statistics For Indices 1,2 and 3, the similarity of daughters' sex roles to each of mothers' two sex roles was compared using paired t-tests. For the classification using Bem's method, the similarity of. daughters' sex roles to mothers' two sex roles was compared using a z-test of equality of proportions with two dependant samples. A z-statistic was constructed, as shown in Figure 3.2.“ d- No. of daughters similar to mothers' prescriptions but not to mothers' selves g a3 No. of daughters similar to mothers' selves but not prescriptions. Figure 3.2. z-statistic for Testing Consistency.1 A way to describe relationships between the two classifications sex roles and demographic variables was also needed. It was decided that a relationship would be indicated when one of the two classifications, sex role or demographics, predicted the other. The null hypothesis is H 1. Glass, G.V. and Stanley, J.C. Statistical methods 'n education 'and s cholo . Englewood Cliffs, N.37 Prentice-Hall, N.J. 1570. p. 326-328. page 42 best expressed by an example: based on the number of all daughters who were masculine and all who were nineteen years old, the probability of masculine nineteen year olds would be equal to the probability of nineteen year olds in other sex role categories. Chi-square tests were used to test the hypotheses of equal probabilitiesi Where differences were found, Haberman analyses of the adjusted residuals were used to determine categories responsible for any significant chi-square value. In this procedure, standardized residuals are calculated, then the residuals' variances are calculated, then the residuals are adjusted to reflect their standard deviations. The adjusted residuals were compared against the standard normal deviate at the alpha level of significance. Lewontin and Felsenstein's suggested guidelines were used to determine sufficiently large expected cell values, and when the demographic category had more than two strata Siegel's guidelines were used (see Appendix C for detailsf¥3 All hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance because of the study's exploratory nature. 1. Everitt, 8.5. The analysis pp contingency tables. N.Y., Wiley, 1977. p.46-457 2. Lewontin, R.C. and Felsenstein, F. The robustness of homogeneity tests in 2 by N tables. Biometrics, March 1965, P. 19. 3. Siegel, Sidney, Nonparametric statistics £25 £25 behavioral sciences, N.Y. MgGraw Hill, 1 56. page 43 mi The study was designed to describe the relationships between daughters' sex roles and their mothers' prescribed and actual sex roles. One hundred and two collegiate daughters and their mothers voluntarily participated in the study. Subjects completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory, a reliable measure of masculine and feminine sex role, and a demographic survey. The study concerned the question of whether daughters' sex roles are more similar to one of mothers' roles than to the other, to the prescribed or actual roles of mothers. Three indices were created by examining the discrepancy between mothers' two sex roles and daughters' sex roles, as indicated by daughters' and mothers' sex role surveys. Hypothesis testing compared the indices using paired t-tests. Also, Bem's four-way sex-role scheme was used to classify subjeCts, ‘and similarity of daughters' roles with mothers' two roles was compared with a z-test of equality of proportions for two dependent samples. In addition, subjects in different demographic groups were classified with Bem's scheme, and were compared using chi-square tests. page 45 Table 4.1 t-tests of Significance of Differences in Similarity of Mothers' Two Roles and Daughter Prescribed-to-daughter t-value Degrees of minus actual-to-daughter Freedom Masculine sex roles .6717 8.50 101 Feminine sex roles .0103 .20- 101 The second analysis, like the first analysis, tested the similarity of daughters' averaged scores and mothers' averaged scores. However, absolute discrepancies between daughters' and mothers' sex roles were obtained. As shown in Table 4.2, the t-value was not significant at the .05 level for either masculine or feminine sex role. Therefore, the major research hypothesis of this study was not supported. page 46 Table 4.2 t-tests of Significance of Differences in Similarity, Using Absolute Discrepancies Prescribed-to-daughter t-value Degrees of minus actual-to-daughter Freedom Masculine -.l327 -l.83 101 Feminine .0430 1.00 101 The third analysis tested the similarity of each of the daughters' responses to adjectives with the corresponding mothers' two sets of responses to adjectives (actual and prescribed), averaged across the sample for each of masculine and femininity sex role. As shown in Table 4.3, the t-value, again, was not significant at the .05 level for either masculinity or femininity. Therefore, the major research hypothesis of this study was not supported. page 47 Table 4.3 t-tests of Significance in Similarity, Using Discrepencies in Ratings of Adjectives Prescribed-to-daughter t-value Degrees of minus actual-to-daughter Freedom Masculine .0487 1.01 101 Feminine -.0325 -.94 101 Another analysis was performed on the data by classifying each subject into one of four sex role categories, using Bem's recommended method. A z-statistic was constructed indicating consistency of daughters' sex roles with mothers' two sex roles. The data was tabulated and indicates the number of times mothers' two sex roles were consistent or inconsistent with daughters' sex roles. As shown in table 4.4, 69 out of 102 (68%) mother-daughter pairs were found to be inconsistent when comparing mothers' actual sex role type with daughters' sex role type, and 58 out of 102 (57%) were found inconsistent when comparing mothers' prescribed sex role type with daughters' sex role type. To compare the two proportions, the z-statistic was computed to be 1.81 (for formula see Figure 3.2), and was not significant at the .05 level. page 48 Table 4.4 Contingency Table of Sex Role Consistency of Mother and Daughter. Prescribed Sex Role Consistent Inconsistent Inconsistent 24 45 69 Actual Sex Role Consistent 20 13 33 44 58 102 z-statistic= 1.81 Supplementary Analysis As a result of these findings, supplementary analyses were performed to determine if mothers had articulated prescribed sex roles that were the same as their actual sex roles. Pearson's product-moment correlations were computed between mothers' two sex roles for both masculinity and femininity. As shown in Table 4.5, correlations between mothers' own and prescribed sex roles were significant at the .05 level for both masculinity and femininity. About twenty percent of the variance of mothers' actual masculinity and fourteen percent of the variance of their actual femininity was accounted for, respectively, by their page 49 prescribed masculiity and femininity. Table 4.5 Product-Moment Correlations of Mothers' Sex Roles Correlation (r) of Significance Actual-to-prescribed level of r masculine .445 .001 feminine .526 .001 In addition, another analysis was performed to determine if daughters' sex roles were related to mothers' prescribed and actual sex roles. Pearson's product-moment correlations were computed and, as shown in Tables 4.6 and 4.7, there were significant correlations at the .05 level between daughters' sex roles and their mothers' actual and prescribed sex roles for both masculinity and femininity. About four percent of the variance of mothers' actual and four percent of the variance of mothers' prescribed masculinity was accounted for, respectively, by daughters' masculinity. About four percent of the variance of mothers' actual and six percent of the variance of mothers' prescribed femininity was accounted for, respectively, by daughters' femininity. page 50 Table 4.6 Product-moment Correlations of Mothers' Two Masculine Sex Roles with Daughters' Masculine Sex Roles Correlation(r) of Significance Sex Roles level of r mother-actual .1893 .028 with daughter mother-prescribed .1989 .023 with daughter page 51 Table 4.7 Product-moment Correlations of Mothers' Two Feminine Sex Roles with Daughters' Feminine Sex Roles Correlation(r) of Significance Sex Roles level of r mother-actual .2156 .015 with daughter mother-prescribed .2593 .004_ with daughter Hypotheses About Demographic Characteristics And Sex Role In order to test whether demographics and sex Iroles were related a number of chi-square tests of independance and a number of corresponding contingency tables were applied to the data. Demographic characteristics are listed in entirety in Table 3.2 (p.28), and the demographic questionnaire is reproduced in Appendix D. The only demographic category significantly related to sex role with sufficient expected cell 'frequencies was the sex-type of mothers' current job, with a chi-square equal to 14.19 with 2 degrees of freedom and p=.028 (a complete listing of results of the chi-square test for demographic categories is page 52 presented in Appendix C). As shown in Table 4.8, analysis of the categories responsible for the rejection of the null hypothesis revealed that: nontraditionally employed mothers were significantly less feminine than other mothers, with an adjusted residual of -2.8, and more masculine than other mothers, with an adjusted residual of +2.6. That is to say, mothers who were non-traditionally employed were more likely masculine and less likely feminine than other sex role categories. Summary The data was found to support the hypotheses about sex role similarity for masculinity only when mean daughters' masculine score was compared to mean mothers' masculine prescribed and actual scores. Thus, on only one of the four analyses, daughters were found more similar to the mothers' masculine selves than to their prescriptions. For all other analyses, the data was not found to support the hypotheses about sex role similarity. However, daughters' sex roles were related to mothers' actual and prescribed sex roles, and mothers' prescribed and actual sex roles were also related to each other. In addition, mothers' sex-typed employment was related to their sex roles, with mothers in nontraditional jobs less feminine and more. masculine than their counterparts. Table 4.8 page 53 Contingency Table of Mothers' Sex-Typed Employment Undiffer- entiated Feminine Masculine Androgyn- ous @s count @@= ex ++= standard residual Unemployed 5 @ 6.4@@ -l.4+ -05++ -,7+++ H O I O 0 03000-0 O‘Q i-‘i-‘NU'IUJ HHQ’O‘O 0|me eeee O‘NDW and Sex 17 14.3 2.7 .7 11 13.7 -2.7 -.7 ‘1.2 Role Traditional Women's Work pected value += residual +++= adjusted residual Nontraditional Women's Work page 55 role, influence would be suggested by the sex role more similar to daughters. To examine the research question, pairs of collegiate women and their mothers were asked to respond to a sex roles questionnaire. One hundred and two collegians from northeastern and midwestern colleges and their mothers participated in this study. The results of tests of the main hypotheses revealed that on only one of the four analyses applied to the data daughters were more similar to mothers' actual masculinity than to their prescribed masculinity; by,all other analyses daughters were neither more similar to prescribed (ideal) characteristics nor the mothers' selves, for both masculinity and femininity. Thus, the major research hypothesis of this study was largely not supported. However, relationships were found between all three sex roles. Also, one test of the demographic hypotheses yielded significant results: mothers femininity was negatively related and their masculinity positively related to nontraditional employment. Limitations Before considering the conclusions and implications of the present investigation. it is appropriate to review some of its limitations. As one significant difference related to the similarity of sex roles was found but other differences were not found, it will be important to explore the obvious page 56 conclusions as well as any potential sources of error. Because of the highly interactive and complex nature of human personality, measurement and interpretation of it is often difficult. In the present study, many factors may have been responsible for the observed results, though sample, methodology and instrumentation may largely have accounted for the~lack of consistent differences. First, the finding, on only one out of four tests of a significant difference between the similarity of mothers' masculine prescribed sex role with daughters and that of the actual sex role with daughters suggests that the one significant difference may be an artifact of the analysis that produced the difference. If, in this one analysis, some discrepancies were positive and some negative, summing them to average would result in an average discrepancy lower than existed in actuality. Thus, the similarity of mothers' actual and daughters' masculinity might have been an artifact of an artificially depressed discrepancy score. Indeed, when the absolute dicrepancies were obtained to eliminate counter-balancing positive and negative signs (Index 2, p.33), no differences in the sex roles' similarities were found. ' In addition, only one of the four anlayses was recommended by Bem for the instrument, and this analysis revealed no differences in sex role similarity. Consequently, given the finding of no] significant differences on analyses based on three of the four indices, given the possibility of an ‘ artificially produced page 57 difference, and given the experimental nature of three of the four analyses it is not possible to conclude that differences exist. The bulk of subsequent discussion is addressed to this lack of differences. As such, the lack of statistically significant differences between the similarity of daughters with mothers' prescribed and actual sex roles would suggest that, in reality, there are no differences in the similarities of daughters with these two roles. One possible explanation for the lack of differences lies in the evidence of a relationship between mothers' actual and prescribed sex roles. Mothers' two sex roles may be so. similar that daughters responses would not reflect the greater influence of one or the other of mothers' two roles. Any assumption of differences, then is perhaps more the investigator's or theory's artifact than any true difference. However, concluding what caused a lack of differences is not possible from these results. Because of the selective nature of the sample, that is, college students and their mothers, the findings should not be generalized to other populations of mother and daughters. Given the fact that this study was the first attempt to .distinguish. prescriptions from mothers' selves, any conclusions must await cross validation or replication. In addition to the limitations just stated, a problem was encountered with the sex role surveys. This pertains to the likert-type rating scale -- the l-to-7 subjects' ratings of the adjectives. As initially conceived, the scale page 58 conceptualized sex role as ranging from a low of one -- indicating subjects marked adjectives "not like me" -- to a high of seven -- indicating "like me,” with a median score midway between the two (scored 4). Yet Bem's normative sample had median scores closer to 5 and most of the scores ranged only two points on either side of the median (from 3 to 7). This resulted in a limited response range. For the purpose for which the scale was designed, classifying subjects into sex role categories based on their scoring above or below the normative sample's median, Bem indicated the scale nonetheless ”permit(s) direct comparisons among the various groups.” 1 However, problems occur when attempts are made to use the scale for other purposes. Undoubtedly, behaviors range with great diversity between traditional and nontraditional and between differentiated and undifferentiated sex roles. While seemingly reflected in the forty masculine and feminine adjectives subjects rate, the actual response range is only about four points, from 3 to 7 on the scale. Sex-typing is done on the basis of differences within this limited range. Thus, using Bem's adjectives and the l-to-7 response 7 scale probably makes assessment of fine distinctions between sex roles impossible. Additional evidence for this instrumental limitation is provided by the results of this investigation: not only were the daughters' 1.Bem, S.L. Bem Sex Role Inventogy Professional Manual. Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc., Palo Alto, 1981. page 59 means, mothers' actual and mothers' prescribed means on the surveys near the normative sample's means, but they were also close to each other. Consequently, this limitation had significant ramifications for the findings reported: it would be difficult to find actual differences between the similarity of daughters with their mothers' two sex roles as the diversity of attributes and behavior were "washed out" in the measures. Although this limitation was recognized prior to the investigation, it was not fully realized how limiting the effects were. The decision to ask mothers to report the ideal sex role for their daughter rather than observing mothers' prescriptions in vivo was a necessary compromise. Finding subjects for the time such in vivo techniques would have involved would have been difficult. However, such a decision introduces doubts as to whether the concept measured was the intended one. For example, if prescribing is a subtle process that occurs only in mother-daughter behavioral interaction, mothers might have drawn from some source other than prescriptions to complete the survey. Mothers might have created a sex role just for the purposes of completing the prescribed survey, drawing mostly from their own sex role. Or, mothers responses might reflect their self-ideals -- subtly different from but related to their actual selves. Indeed, such explanations are consistent with the present study's finding of a relationship between mothers' two sex roles. Thus, an objective survey may not be as sensitive as behavioral observation and perhaps should not be conSidered page 60 an accurate indicator of prescribed sex role. It is also quite possible that the stage of identity formation of the sample may have confounded the results. Since the assesement of sex role is a measure of identity, the data obtained reflect constructs which are certainly fluid for the daughters, and may be fluid for mothers, too. That is, similarities between pre-teen daughters' sex roles and their mothers' sex roles, reflecting the proximal and daily contact between the two, may not exist at this advanced point in) the parent-child relationship. For example, were mothers to enter college, male-oriented work settings or other non-traditional environments posterior to child-rearing, their values, as reflected in their sex roles, could have changed. Indeed, the collegiate educational experience of most of the mothers in the sample is consistent with a hypothesis of changes in sex role over time. This homogenous group of mothers, having been exposed to and having inculcated non-traditional sex roles to a greater extent than the general populus, could have continued to question and change their sex roles as their children left home. Subsequently, these mothers' personalities may reflect significant changes made posterior. to child-rearing. In addition, high numbers of mothers were employed in traditionally masculine jobs, and had greater masculinity and less femininity than those in traditionally female fields and the umemployed. These mothers may have joined male settings and become subject to masculine influences after their daughters left home. Since page 61 changes in mothers' and daughters' sex roles over time were factors not considered in the design of the study, this could have explained why no differences were found in the present study. Overall, it appears that problems in the methodology, instrument and sample may have partially contributed to the observed nonsignificant results. A combination of a limited, survey-type instrument plus the potential confounding factors of educational level, changes over time and employment status may have made it difficult to accurately assess the relationship between daughters' and mothers' sex roles in this study. Conclusions and Recommendations In regard to the fundamental question examined in this study -- "Do daughters learn sex roles from mothers' own sex roles or from mothers' prescribed sex role ? -- the results of this investigation offer no definitive clues. The limitations cited previously and the resultant largely nonsignificant findings have led to no credible descriptions of differences with respect to this data. On the other hand there is room for speculation to guide future research interests. Thus, an attempt will be made to explore the implications of the findings of the effect of non-traditional employment on mothers' sex roles, and of relationships between daughters, prescribed and mothers' actual sex roles. page 62 While no significant differences were found between the similarity of daughters with mothers prescribed and actual sex roles, some relationship between the daughter and the mothers' two sex roles does exist. One explanation for these findings exists in observations made by some mothers regarding their own processes of sex role development. These were handwritten, accompanied the surveys returned by mail to the investigator, and unsolicited. These mothers reported that although their answers accurately reflected their current sex roles and ideals for daughters, their answers would have been different some years previously. They felt their sex roles had changed. This evidence suggests that the sex roles most influential to young daughters may not not have been tapped by the surveys used in this study. Thus, sex role, an integral part of personality, may through time and/or events be fluid. This fluidity may be continuous and gradual or occur at only certain times (e.g. at ”empty nest" time, working in masculine settings, or even on going to college). Thus, the roles mothers described in this study may be related to daughters' roles but not as similar to the daughters as they might have been when the mothers and daughters were younger. Indeed, some sex role theorists suggest fluidity in behavior is adaptive. Bem views choosing behavior to best match situations, which she calls situational adaptivity, as the norm against which conformity to cultural definitions of sex-typed behavior becomes less desirable. Rebecca et a1, too, defined ideal personality as one marked by a "flexible, page 63 dynamic transcendance of sex roles."192 An extension of this possibility is that the changes in sex role reflect a stage of development for mothers. That is, normal adulthood may involve developing an awareness of the contradictory roles within oneself. Thus, mothers prescribed and actual sex role could have once been disparate, becoming more similar through a normal process of adult development. Integration of different "parts of the self” is described in personality literature. Erikson, for example, contrasts the adolescent's search for a sense of continuity and attempts to find social meaning for the parts of the self with the adult sense of ego identity.3 Jung, too, emphasizes the importance of integration. He suggests that integrating previously projected parts of the self, which he calls ”the shadow," must occur before further personality growth is possible? Two other possibilities could conceivably account for the lack of findings. While a search of the literature yielded no descriptions of the following processes, they are presented 1.Bem, S.L. Egg Sex Role Inventogy Professional Manual. Consulting Psycholdgists Press, Inc., Palo Alto, 1981. 2.Rebecca, M., Hefner, R.” and Olehansky, B., A model of sex role transcendance. 325 Journaleg Social Issues, 32(3), 1976, p. 198. 3.Erikson, Erik H. Childhood app Society. N.Y., W.W. Norton and Co., 1963. 4.Jung, C.G. Aion: Researches into the phenomenology of the self. In Collected Works, v.9(2). Bollingen Foundation, Inc., 1959. page 64 nonetheless. One possibility consistent with findings of a relationship between mothers' and daughters' sex roles is that daughters may have impacted, in a retrograde manner, on mothers' sex roles. Mothers' prescriptions could defend against feared inadequacies in their own sex roles. The defensiveness could later give way to increasing pride in individuating daughters, and the mothers, realizing that they had modeled for these relatively healthy daughters, could change their prescriptions to match their selves and the daughters. Thus, mothers of post-adolescent daughters may report prescriptions different from the ones to which pre-teen daughters were exposed. Or, as the mothers wished, the daughters may have inculcated the prescriptions and lived satisfyingly by them; their mothers, upon seeing this, could have subsequently brought their own actual sex roles into alignment with the prescriptions and the daughters. By both suggestions, these mothers' current sex roles would be more similar to daughters than were the roles to which their daughters were primarily exposed. Thus, daughters, who may represent the modern era to their mothers, could, through proximity and interaction with mothers, cause mothers to "update" their sex roles. Thus, the roles mothers described in this study may be related to daughters because of the daughters' retrograde impact. This is consistent with literature emphasizing the dyadic nature of parent-child interaction. Stevens-Long's research shows that people feel they would be more punitive to an aggressive boy than to a nonaggressive one. Moss shows that page 65 even such variables as crying and infant irritability predict frequenCy with which infants are held by mothers.1’2 The above suggestions also reflect an ambiguity in the finding of a relationship between daughters' and mothers' sex roles: because the research methodology was limited, the relationship cannot be inferred as causal. Thus, the finding reflects both the possibility of mother influencing daughter and the reverse. Fourth, daughters might be genetically pre-programmed to be similar to mothers' selves and prescriptions. Thus, similarities between daughters' and mothers' sex roles may only reflect heritability of traits. The literature is ripe with heredity studies. Some characteristics, such as intelligence, have been extensively studied (Scarr-Salapatek, among others) and are felt by many to be heritable to a large extent? The heritability of other traits, such as temperament, while probably not as genetically determined as Sheldon suggests, may yet be shown partly heritable and partly developmentally determined.4 1.Stevens-Long, J. The effect of behavioral context on some aspects of adult disciplinary practice and affect. Child Development, 44, 1973. 2.Moss, H.A. Sex, age, and state as determinants of mother-child interactionx Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 13, 1967. - 3.Scarr-Salapatek, S. Genetics and the development of intelligence. In F.D. Horowitz (Ed.), Review 2; Child Development Research, 4, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975. 4.She1don, W.H. Tpg Varieties pl Temperament. N.Y. Harper, 1942. page 66 Finally, the relationship between mothers' and daughters' sex roles, instead of reflecting the influence of one role on another, could reflect some external factor that influences all the roles similarly. For example, it is quite possible that both mothers and daughters learn sex roles from peers, media, etc. Thus, extrafamilial factors, such as peers and the media, may be more important factors in the socialization process than mothers' articulated actual and prescribed sex roles. The daughters' sex roles may be related to mothers' only because both mothers' and daughters' sex roles are consistent with these other influences. The limitations of the present research investigation as well as the proposed models of sex role fluidity and extra-familial sex role influence suggest a number of implications for future research. First, research concerned with the assessment of sex role influence, and especially influence between parents and children should attempt to use either a younger sample of mothers and daughters than those used here, or a cross-section of younger and older mothers and daughters. The stability of sex roles is not sufficiently established for research to use the limited sample of college students and their mothers. In addition, care must be taken that samples' experiences represent the general population of mothers and daughters. Collegiate daughters' mothers may themselves be so educated and non-traditional as to bias results. page 67 Second, because of the difficulty of isolating the effects of familial "influence” from extrafamilial influence with a descriptive model, experimental reSearch is needed to determine which of sex role influences were most powerful. In vivo observations of the comparitive influences could be made. For example, some children could be exposed to televised models resembling mothers, fathers or peers exhibiting sex-typed behaviors. Others could be exposed to the models verbalizing sex-typed prescriptions. The subjects could then be compared for sex-typed preferences. Third, while the sex role surveys used in this study were probably sufficient for the broad categorizing of sex role type, they are inadequate as they currently stand for the measurement of fine distinctions between sex roles. Additional research is needed to expand the range of classifications that can be made by the surveys. Finally, because mother' ideals for selves and ideals for daughters may be similar, additional research is needed to better understand both the differences and shared elements of these constructs. Investigators seeking to understand influence's. role in parenting must control this factor if meaningful investigations of socialization influences are to be made. APPENDI CES APPENDI X A APPENDI X B APPENDI X C APPENDIX C page 70 Chi-Square Test of Independance of Demographics and Sex Role Using Contingency Tables Hypothesis Chi-square Significance #Demo- Cells' strata E.F. Sex role & —Daughter Age 11.53 .729 4 2.1 Race 15.57 .212 5 <1 Current 14.01 .300 3 <1 Job Birth Order 8.56 .479 4 <1 College Year 3.61 .73 3 <1 Sex Role & Mother Age 10.42 .318 2 9.4 Race 14.19 .028 5 <1 High Grade 17.39 .497 4 <1 College Year 30.75 .031 7 <1 Current Job 14.19 .028 3 5.9 Job Reject Work 17.39 .497 7 <1 History Birth Order 7.80 .801 4 <1 Order Marital 3.50 .320 2 5.0 Status Income 17.49 .291 5 <1 page 71 Appendix C (cont'd.) Guidelines for Haberman Analyses of Residuals of Contingency Tables, Minimum Expected Frequencies 1. When the data produced a 2 by 4 contingency table, Lewontin and Felsenstein's recommmendation that ”if the expectancies are 1 or greater the test is certainly conservative" were used. 2. When the data produced a r by 4 table, where r>2, Siegel's recommendation that ”each frequency should be at least 5" was used. 1. Lewontin, R.C. and Felsenstein, J. The robustness of homogeneity tests in 2 by 4 tables. Biometrics, March 1965, p. 19. 2. Siegel, Sidney. Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences, N.Y. MgGraw Hill, 1956. APPENDI X D page 72 APPENDIX D Demographic Sheet 1. Age in years: 1:17-18 2:19-20 3=20 4:21-23 5:24-29 6:30-45 7:45-60 and above. 2. Race: laAsian 2=Black 3=Caucasian 4=Hispanic 5=Other. 3. Highest grade completed: l=8 or below 229-11 3:12 42 trade school 5-some college. 4. Years of college completed: 1=lyr 2:2 yr 3=3 yr 484 yr 5- some graduate school 6=graduate degree 7: nocollege. 5. Currently employed as: 12 not currently employed 2: Traditional occupation (secretary, teacher, nurse, social worker, clerk, etc.) 3: Non-traditonal occupation (lawyer, physician, business, etc.) 6. Work History: 1- never worked 2: worked summers 3- worked until marriage or birth of first child, have not worked since 4-worked until birth of first child, resumed work soon after S-worked until birth of first child, resumed work after children left home 6- worked pretty consistently throughout 7=started work after children left home. 7. Birth order: 18 only child 2. first child 3=middle child page 73 4=youngest child. 8. Parenting status (mothers only): lasingle parent 2=married. 9. Income level: lsup to 10,000 2=l0.000-20,000 3a 20,000-30,000 4330,000-40,000 5- above 40,000. 10. Do you wish a copy of the final results (if not, your name will be removed from the master list )? 1=yes 2=no B I BLI OGRAPHY page 74 BIBLIOGRAPHY Abrahams, B., Feldman, 5.5. and Nash, S.C. Sex role self-concepts and sex role attitudes: Enduring personality characteristics or adaptions to changing life situations? Developmental Psychology, 1978, lg, 393-400. Bem, S.L. 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