THE ROLE OF MATERNAL CONTROL IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEX-DIFFERENCES INCHILD SELF-EVALUATIVE FACTORS

The major goal of the present research was to examine the role of pare ntal control in the development of sex differences in 2 pivotal self-e valuative factors in children: taking responsibility for failure and p ossessing strong standards. Parents were expected to use control with and without autonomy granting in specific domains differentially with girls and boys on a daily basis, and this was expected to foster sex d ifferences in children's self-evaluative factors. Ninety-one mothers o f elementary school children completed a daily checklist for 10 to 21 days. The checklist assessed mothers' everyday use of control and auto nomy granting in 5 specific domains (helping, monitoring, decision mak ing, praising, and disciplining). Children completed self-report measu res assessing their tendency to take responsibility for failure and th e strength of their standards. As anticipated, mothers were more likel y to employ control without autonomy granting with girls than with boy s, but were more likely to employ control with autonomy granting with boys than with girls. Significantly, this pattern of gender socializat ion partially mediated the tendency of girls to take greater responsib ility for failure than boys. Although there were no sex differences in the strength of children's standards, the pattern of gender socializa tion was associated with the strength of children's standards as well.