PARENTS GENDER-BASED ATTITUDES TOWARD MARITAL ROLES AND CHILD-REARING- DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF NEW MEASURES

Factor analysis of 18 Likert-type items dealing with gender stereotype s about family roles was conducted and yielded two measures: one focus ed on marital roles and one focussed on child rearing. Respondents wer e parents of children in the third and fourth grades of a large indust rialized city in the Midwest. The sample included 364 families equally divided between middle and lower class with 23% African American and 77% European American. For both scales, more stereotyped scores were o btained by parents who were lower in social status, less educated, ful l-time homemakers, African Americans, and fathers. Parents' scores rel ated to a separate measure of children's stereotypes and the marital-r ole attitudes related to actual roles reported by family members. Daug hters whose parents obtained less stereotyped scores had a more intern al locus of control, showed a trend toward more independent coping ski lls, and--in the middle class--obtained higher scores on achievement t ests.