Gender Role Flexibility in Early Adolescence: Developmental Change in Attitudes, Self-perceptions, and Behaviors

Sex Roles (2006) 55:233245 DOI 10.1007/s11199-006-9076-1

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Gender Role Flexibility in Early Adolescence: Developmental Change in Attitudes, Self-perceptions, and Behaviors

Maria Bartini

Published online: 16 November 2006 # Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2006

Abstract Gender role flexibility has been conceptualized as a multi-dimensional construct that consists of attitudes, self-perceptions, and behaviors. The present study was designed to examine the developmental trajectory of gender role attitude flexibility, self-perception flexibility, and gender-typed behavioral flexibility during early adolescence. One hundred and thirty six male and female sixth grade students completed the Childrens Occupations, Activities, and Traits Scale (Liben & Bigler, 2002) during the fall and spring of their first 2 years of middle school and they kept monthly after-school activity diaries, which were coded for gender stereotypicality. Each component of flexibility exhibited a different pattern of developmental change consistent with the multi-dimensional view of gender role flexibility.

Keywords Gender roles . Adolescence . Attitudes . Self-perceptions . Behavior

Gender is one of the most salient features we use to categorize and process social stimuli. Children begin learning gender stereotypes before they reach preschool age, and their stereotype knowledge becomes increasingly refined across childhood (Huston, 1983; Ruble & Martin, 1998). Gender role flexibility can be defined as the transcendence of traditionally gender-typed traits, roles, and behaviors in the judgment of others and the self. For a child to be truly flexible, he/she must understand cultural norms and weigh personal likes and dislikes above cultural prescriptions for gender-typed behavior (Katz, 1996). Developmental differences can be identified in how faithfully children adhere to

gender stereotypes in their judgments of others (Martin, 1989; Sigelman, Carr, & Begley, 1986; Smetana, 1986; Stoddart & Turiel, 1985) and in their own preferences (Edelbrock & Sugawara, 1978; Emmerich & Shepard, 1982; Nelson & Keith, 1990; Turner & Gervai, 1995). The limitation of much of this literature is the lack of longitudinal data and/or inadequate measures of gender role flexibility. The purpose of this article is to address these limitations by presenting a 2-year longitudinal study of early adolescents gender role flexibility that used a multidimensional assessment of gender role flexibility.

Multidimensionality of Gender Typing

Research on adults (e.g., Spence, 1993; Spence & Buckner, 2000; Twenge, 1999) suggests that gender typing is best viewed...