Mothers' and fathers' gender-role characteristics: The assignment of postdivorce child care and custody

Adults (151 female, 130 male; 17.4% African American/Black, 48% Caucasian, 22.8% Latino/Hispanic, 11.7% "other") assigned postdivorce parental care an d custody for four combinations of traditional/nontraditional mothers and f athers described in vignettes of divorcing parents. Parental gender charact eristics influenced the assignment of parental care and child custody to di vorcing mothers and fathers described in the scenarios and interacted with child gender. Across scenarios, female participants assigned more parental care and custody to mothers than did male participants. Wizen feminine qual ities were paired with masculine qualities, greater custody was assigned to the parent described with feminine characteristics (whether a father or mo ther) than when that parent was described with masculine characteristics. T he role of feminine gender characteristics for child custody and cave was d iscussed with regard to maternal primacy and possible changes for father in volvement in the aftermath of divorce.