Gender and Children's Housework Time in China: Examining Behavior Modeling in Context

Differentiated gender roles in adulthood are rooted in one's gender role socialization. In order to understand the persistence of gender inequalities in the domestic sphere, we need to examine the gendered patterns of children's housework time. Although researchers have identified behavior modeling as a major mechanism of gender role reproduction and characterized gender socialization as a contextually embedded process, few have investigated contextual variation in behavior modeling, particularly in non‐Western developing countries. Analyzing data from the China Family Panel Studies 2010, the author examined the differences in behavior modeling between boys and girls age 10–15 from 2‐parent families (N = 1,903) in rural and urban China. The results revealed distinctive gendered interplays in the way parental housework and employment behavior helps shape children's housework time. This analysis is a crucial illustration of how the distinctive sociocultural contexts of rural and urban China moderate the effects of housework‐behavior modeling on intergenerational gender role socialization.     

Attitudes Toward Housework and Child Care and the Gendered Division of Labor

Research on the division of household labor has typically examined the role of time availability, relative resources, and gender ideology. We explore the gendered meaning of domestic work by examining the role of men's and women's attitudes toward household labor. Using data from the Dutch Time Competition Survey (N = 732), we find that women have more favorable attitudes toward cleaning, cooking, and child care than do men: Women enjoy it more, set higher standards for it, and feel more responsible for it. Furthermore, women's favorable and men's unfavorable attitudes are associated with women's greater contribution to household labor. Effects are stronger for housework than child care, own attitudes matter more than partner's, and men's attitudes are more influential than women's.     

Elementary School-age Children's Attitudes Toward Children in Same-Sex Parent Families

As numbers of families with same-sex parents increase in the United States, children are more likely to encounter diverse family structures. Given that young children can demonstrate in-group bias, prejudicial attitudes, and social exclusion, it is important to understand how children perceive their peers in diverse families. To our knowledge, no studies have assessed elementary-school-age children's attitudes about same-sex parent families. Here, 131 elementary school students (M_age = 7.79 years; 61 girls) viewed images of same-sex (female and male) and other-sex couples with a child and then were asked about their perceptions of these families, particularly the children. Results indicated participants' preferences toward children with other-sex versus same-sex parents. Developmental and practical implications about children's attitudes toward sexual minority parent families are discussed.     

IMPLICATIONS OF INTERNET TECHNOLOGY FOR MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

This research examines how parental heterosexism—negative attitudes toward homosexuals and homosexuality—and other family characteristics relate to the development of children's attitudes toward people with HIV/AIDS (PWA). Attention is directed to the overall relationship between parents’ and children's attitudes and to the potential mechanisms through which these linkages are manifested. Based on social learning theories of childhood socialization, a range of mechanisms is considered, focusing on heterosexist attitudes in parents and communication with children about AIDS. Findings indicate that parental attitudes concerning homosexuals influence children's attitudes toward PWA, implying that there can be negative as well as positive consequences of parents’ beliefs on children's attitudes. The possibility of negative parental effects on children's prejudices toward PWA suggests that in-school HIV/AIDS education at younger ages is more important than previously thought.     

Young children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors after mothers exit welfare: Comparisons with children of non-welfare mothers

Although not part of its stated aims, current welfare legislation is assumed to benefit children through increased parental employment and self-sufficiency. Research findings on the extent to which parental welfare participation improves child well-being are inconclusive. This study investigates the behavioral outcomes of young children whose mothers have received TANF using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2169). Controlling for maternal demographic characteristics, current financial status, and health risks, we found that the difference between children's externalizing behaviors in families of former TANF recipients relative to children of mothers who had never been on welfare decreased the longer mothers had been off welfare. However, overall, externalizing behaviors were significantly higher among children of former TANF recipients relative to children whose mothers had never received welfare. The findings suggest that ensuring healthy development for children requires long-term supports to help mothers as they transition off welfare.     

Maternal Education and Investments in Children's Health

Maternal education differences in children's academic skills have been strongly linked to parental investment behaviors. This study extended this line of research to investigate whether these same maternal education patterns in parenting are observed among a set of parenting behaviors that are linked to young children's health. Drawing on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (n = 5,000) and longitudinal models incorporating random effects, the authors found that higher levels of maternal education were associated with more advantageous health investment behaviors at each phase of early development (9 months, 2 years, 4 years, 5 years). Moreover, these disparities were typically largest at the developmental stage when it was potentially most sensitive for children's long‐term health and development. These findings provide further evidence of a developmental gradient associated with mothers' education and new insight into the salience of mothers' education for the short‐ and long‐term health and well‐being of their children.     

Agency policy and the participation of children and young people in the child protection process

This article explores agency policy in relation to children's participation in the child protection process. This was done by examining policy documents and conference minutes and by interviewing social workers and conference chairs working in child protection in Wales. Issues and dilemmas surrounding the participation of children and young people in the child protection process are identified and examined. The lack of children's more direct participation was noted, but many agencies were taking action to inform themselves of children's views indirectly. Advocacy was being more frequently used, and highly valued where it was available, but did raise some role dilemmas. The essentially child‐unfriendly nature of child protection processes (particularly the conferences) was identified as a significant barrier to promoting children's voices. The contradiction of trying to promote children's direct participation in a process that is inherently not geared towards their direct involvement was noted. The total lack of children's input into service planning for child protection services was seen as significant. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘The Mighty Pillar of the Family’: Young People's Vocabularies on Household Gender Arrangements in the Asia‐Pacific Region

In the light of women's increased labour force participation and the demands of western feminism for men's participation in housework and childcare, this article analyses vocabularies on these issues among young people in Australia, USA and Canada and seven countries in Asia. While very few young people in any of the samples use explicitly feminist justifications for their statements, there is high support for sharing housework when both partners are in paid work. By contrast, the strong support for role reversal — for men being ‘house husbands’— is confined to the western samples. The article explores reasons for these differences based in respondents’ domestic experiences and national family policies. Where many of the western respondents rely on equality or individualism, the Asian respondents are more likely to understand the role of the husband and wife in the context of their duties to each other and the nation or to assert the existence of gender differences between men and women.     

‘She is Too Young for These Chores’ — Is Housework Taking a Back Seat in Urban Chinese Childhood?

The child in contemporary urban China is experiencing an increasingly exclusive focus on academic achievement at the expense of non‐academic activities, particularly housework. In‐depth interviews with caregivers (including grandparents and parents) from 9 three‐generational families (n = 34) and parents from 10 nuclear families (n = 20) were conducted. Results show that although children from both family types were low in housework participation, children in three‐generational families were perceived by their caregivers to be less competent in performing self‐care and family‐care tasks. They were also less frequently assigned regular tasks as compared with children from nuclear families. Unlike caregivers from western societies, where children's participation in housework is seen as either a means of socialisation or a source of domestic labour, Chinese caregivers consider housework as a distraction, at best an addendum to academic work.     

The Effect of Gender on Sex-Role Attitudes

Abstract

An examination of the contradiction between college student studies and national public opinion polls.

The evidence concerning the existence and magnitude of gender differences in sex-role attitudes is contradictory. A large number of studies, based primarily on college samples, have reported significant gender differences in the sex-role attitudes of young adults; males have been found to be more traditional than females. However, studies based on national samples including all age and educational groups have not found consistent gender differences. In order to investigate this contradiction, NORC General Social Survey was aggregated from the years 1974 through 1978 to create a data set that included a large number of young adults who were currently attending or who had recently attended college. Both age and education were found to be significant predictors of sex-role attitudes, but for most of the items examined gender differences were not found to be larger for young adults than for older adults. For both age groups larger gender differences were found in items pertaining to caring for children than for items pertaining to women's roles in the public sphere.     

Parental involvement in children's residential treatment: From preplacement to aftercare

Policy reforms and empirical evidence supporting family focused care for children have increased parental involvement in children's residential treatment. Reasons for encouraging family involvement in children's out-of-home care and factors that inhibit parents from participating in children's residential care are outlined. Methods used by treatment facilities to encourage family participation in children's preplacement, treatment, and aftercare stages of placement are reviewed. Important questions nd research necessary to increase parental involvement in children's residential treatment are identified.     

Mothers' and Fathers' Work Hours,Child Gender,and Behavior in Middle Childhood

This study examined the association between typical parental work hours (including nonemployed parents) and children's behavior in two‐parent heterosexual families. Child behavior was measured by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at ages 5, 8, and 10 in the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study (N = 4,201 child‐year observations). Compared to those whose fathers worked fewer hours per week, children whose fathers worked 55 hours or more per week had significantly higher levels of externalizing behavior. This association was not explained by father–child time during the week, poorer family functioning, or overreactive parenting practice. Further, when stratifying the analysis by child gender, this association appeared to exist only in boys. Mothers' work hours were unrelated to children's behavioral problems. The role of parent and child gender in the relationships between parental work hours and children's behavioral problems, together with mediating factors, warrants further investigation.     

Dating and Mate Selection Among Young Adults from Immigrant Families

In this article the authors examine dating and mate selection preferences and experiences from the perspective of young men and women from immigrant families. Through in-depth personal interviews with 35 second generation youth from diverse cultures, the authors explored: (1) parental influences and expectations of their children's mate choices; (2) the roles of gender, birth order, and length of residency in the United States in expectations for mate selection; and (3) immigrant youth's preferences for marriage partners. The findings showed that immigrant parents hold mostly endogamous views. Youth's dating experiences are influenced by their gender, their birth order, and their family's acculturation. Second generation immigrants generally seek bicultural partners like themselves. Narratives from the participants provide insight into the attitudes that guide mate selection of these young adults from immigrant families.     

Nonoffending Parent Expectations of Sexually Abused Children: Predictive Factors and Influence on Children's Recovery

This study examined the influence of parental expectations on the functioning of sexually abused children. Participants included 67 sexually abused youth and 63 of their nonoffending primary caregivers. Parental expectations about how sexual abuse will impact children were predictive of parents' ratings of children's behavior at pretreatment, while parental expectations of children's overall future functioning were not predictive of parents' ratings of children's behavior. Parental expectations about how sexual abuse will impact their children and about their children's overall future functioning were not predictive of parents' ratings of children's behavior at posttreatment. Results highlight the influential role the sexual abuse label has in shaping parental expectations about children's functioning. Recommendations for research and intervention are discussed.     

Life Course Stage in Young Adulthood and Intergenerational Congruence in Family Attitudes

We investigated how intergenerational congruence in family‐related attitudes depends on life course stage in young adulthood. Recent data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study were used; the present sample included 2,041 dyads of young adults and their parents. Findings are discussed in terms of the elasticity in intergenerational attitude congruence in response to young adults' life course transitions. Our results suggest that intergenerational congruence in attitudes about partnership (e.g., marriage, cohabitation, divorce, women's and men's family roles) decreases after young adults have left the parental home and increases when young adults enter parenthood. Congruence concerning intergenerational obligations was not related to young adults' life course stage.     

Between Two Worlds: Source‐Country Gender Roles and Gender Differences in Educational Attainment among Immigrant Children

Recent scholarship has focused on the relationship between source‐country characteristics such as female labor force participation, fertility, level of economic development, gender role attitudes, and immigrants’ labor market assimilation. These studies refer to national‐level factors when accounting for the vast differences in home‐country groups in labor market outcomes. This study asks to what extent these source‐country characteristics affect immigrant children's educational outcomes. Using data from the 2006 Canadian Census and World Values Survey, this article examines the extent to which the gender gap in educational attainment among immigrant children is associated with source‐country factors. Female child immigrants who come from countries with high female labor force participation and high levels of GDP have an advantage over their male counterparts in university education. Source‐country gender role ideology played a role in university completion rates for immigrant parents, but not for child immigrants.     

The reproduction of gender: housework and attitudes towards gender equality in the home among Swedish boys and girls

The housework Swedish girls and boys age 10 to 18 do, and their attitudes towards gender equality in the home are studied. One aim is to see whether the work children do is gendered and if so, whether they follow their parents', often gendered, pattern in housework. A second aim is to see whether children's attitudes are influenced by their parents' attitudes and practices. When it comes to issues like these, Sweden is of special interest because in 1995, Sweden was appointed the most gender equal country in the world by the United Nations. The data used were the Swedish Child Level of Living Survey 2000 (see http://www.sofi.su.se/LNU2000/english.htm), a data set that includes extensive first-hand information from both children and their parents. The results indicate that girls and boys in two-parent families are more prone to engage in gender atypical work the more their parent of the same sex engages in this kind of work. The fact that girls still do more housework than boys in all families independent of, among other things, the parental division of housework and the mother's educational level indicates that housework to some extent signifies gender also to children. However, no clear relation is found between the parents' division of work and the child's attitude towards gender equality in the home. Neither is there any clear relation between the parents' attitude towards gender equality in the home and the children's attitude to the same topic.     

Children's participation in national policymaking: “You're so adorable,adorable, adorable! I'm speechless; so much fun!”

Policymaking is one of the most challenging arenas in which children's participation rights are implemented. The goal of this study is to portray patterns of children's participation in public policymaking and characterize various adults' reactions to children's participation. The study draws on protocols of committees operating in the Israeli parliament and interviews with an advisory group of children and young people who had participated on the committees. The findings show the potential of children's participation in national policymaking to mobilize policy change and to contextualize policy discussions. They also demonstrate that children's comments in policy discussions may evoke extreme responses, expressed as either fawning or dismissing. The conclusions offer practices that may assist in preparing both the participating children and the policymakers and in diversifying the children's voices.