Gender Stereotypes in the Family Context: Mothers, Fathers, and Siblings

Abstract

Gender stereotypes of children and their parents were examined. Participants included 355 three-year-old children, their one-year-old siblings, and their mothers and fathers. Families were selected from the Western region of the Netherlands. Implicit gender stereotypes were assessed with computerized versions of the Action Inference Paradigm (AIP; both child and parents) and the Implicit Association Test (parent only). Parental explicit gender stereotypes were measured with the Child Rearing Sex-Role Attitude Scale. Findings revealed that mothers had stronger implicit gender stereotypes than fathers, whereas fathers had stronger explicit stereotypes than mothers. Fathers with same-gender children had stronger implicit gender stereotypes about adults than parents with mixed-gender children. For the children, girls’ implicit gender stereotypes were significantly predicted by their mother’s implicit gender stereotypes about children. This association could only be observed when the AIP was used to assess the stereotypes of both parent and child. A family systems model is applicable to the study of gender stereotypes.

Full text

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Gender Stereotypes in the Family Context: Mothers,
Fathers, and Siblings
Joyce J. Endendijk &Marleen G. Groeneveld &
Sheila R. van Berkel &Elizabeth T. Hallers-Haalboom &
Judi Mesman &Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg
#Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Gender stereotypes of children and their parents
were examined. Participants included 355 three-year-old
children, their one-year-old siblings, and their mothers and
fathers. Families were selected from the Western region of
the Netherlands. Implicit gender stereotypes were assessed
with computerized versions of the Action Inference
Paradigm (AIP; both child and parents) and the Implicit
Association Test (parent only). Parental explicit gender ster-
eotypes were measured with the Child Rearing Sex-Role
Attitude Scale. Findings revealed that mothers had stronger
implicit gender stereotypes than fathers, whereas fathers had
stronger explicit stereotypes than mothers. Fathers with
same-gender children had stronger implicit gender stereo-
types about adults than parents with mixed-gender children.
For the children, girls’implicit gender stereotypes were
significantly predicted by their mother’s implicit gender
stereotypes about children. This association could only be
observed when the AIP was used to assess the stereotypes of
both parent and child. A family systems model is applicable
to the study of gender stereotypes.
Keywords Gender stereotypes .Children .Parents .
Siblings .Implicit and explicit stereotypes .Gender
Introduction
Gender stereotypes are widely held beliefs about the char-
acteristics, behaviors, and roles of men and women
(Weinraub et al. 1984). In the preschool period family
context and family experiences are important for gender
stereotype development (McHale et al. 2003; Witt 1997).
Several, mostly U.S., studies have investigated child gender
stereotypes in a family context, and demonstrated that pa-
rental gender stereotypes and the presence of siblings play
an important role in the development of explicit gender
stereotypes (McHale et al. 1999,2003; Turner and Gervai
1995), but it remains unclear if these factors have the same
influence on the development of more unconscious (i.e.,
implicit) forms of stereotyping. There is also evidence that
different aspects of parental gender stereotypes (implicit or
explicit) may influence parenting behavior in different ways
(Nosek et al. 2002a,b,2005; Rudman 2004). To our knowl-
edge parental implicit and explicit gender stereotypes have
not yet been examined together in one study in relation to
children’s implicit gender stereotypes. Moreover, the litera-
ture on gender stereotypes is dominated by North-American
studies, whereas it is equally important to study parent and
child gender stereotypes in societies like the Netherlands,
where gender equality and the participation of women in
the labor market are relatively high, and fathers are
generally ranked high on father involvement (Cousins
and Ning 2004; Devreux 2007). Studying gender stereo-
types in the Netherlands may also provide insights into
why gender stereotypes persist and how they are trans-
mitted across generations even in societies that no longer
explicitly accept gender stereotypes.
In the current study we examine implicit gender stereo-
types of Dutch preschoolers and their parents within the
family context, focusing on the role of implicit and explicit
parental gender stereotypes, child gender, and sibling gen-
der. A family systems model (Bowen 1978) is employed to
incorporate the bidirectional influence of parents and their
children on each others attitudes. We also draw from social
learning theories and gender schema theory, because they
consider parents to be important in children’sgender
J. J. Endendijk :M. G. Groeneveld :S. R. van Berkel :
E. T. Hallers-Haalboom :J. Mesman (*):
M. J. Bakermans-Kranenburg
Centre for Child and Family Studies,
Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
e-mail: mesmanj@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Sex Roles
DOI 10.1007/s11199-013-0265-4

stereotype development. Figure 1shows the model of the
associations tested in this study.
Parental Gender Stereotypes
Parents can hold gender stereotypes both implicitly and
explicitly. Implicit stereotypes operate largely outside con-
scious awareness, whereas explicit gender stereotypes are
directly stated or overtly expressed ideas about men and
women (Benaji and Greenwald 1995; Rudman and Glick
2001; Rudman and Kilianski 2000). These two types of
attitudes can be different in strength and can be seen as
different constructs that both operate in their own way on
our behaviors, according to a U.S. study with adults (Nosek
et al. 2002a). Explicit stereotypes are usually assessed using
questionnaires or interviews, as in a U.S. study with adults
(White and White 2006), and implicit attitudes and cogni-
tions about gender can be assessed by the Implicit
Association Test (Nosek et al. 2002a), sentence completion
or priming tasks, as in a Belgian study with adults (De
Houwer et al. 2009). The major strength of implicit meas-
ures is that they are less prone to social desirability, because
they are based on automatic or habitual responding. A
weakness is that it is not entirely clear whether implicit tasks
indeed measure a person’s own stereotypes, or culturally
shared attitudes (De Houwer et al. 2009). In the field of
gender stereotype studies it is now common to use both
measures to get a complete picture of a person’s attitudes
about gender. In addition, for controversial subjects like
gender and race, U.S. studies with adults have shown that
implicit stereotypes are better predictors of behavior than
explicit self-reported stereotypes (Nosek et al. 2002a,b,
2005; Rudman 2004), because explicit reports may be bi-
ased by social desirability and a lack of awareness of own
stereotypes (Kunda and Spencer 2003; White and White
2006). Social desirability tendencies appear to be strongest
among people with higher levels of education, because of
their greater awareness of what are appropriate responses,
according to a U.S. study with adults (Krysan 1998). So,
educational level of participants has to be taken into account
when examining gender stereotypes.
Children’s Gender Stereotypes
Children acquire gender stereotypes at an early age. A U.S
study with 10- month-old children found that at this age they
can already detect gender-related categories (Levy and Haaf
1994). In the second year of life preferences for gender-
stereotypical toys appear, as found in a Canadian study with
12-, 18-, and 24-month-old children (Serbin et al. 2001).
According to another Canadian study explicit knowledge
about gender roles emerges between the ages of 2 and
3 years (Poulin-Dubois et al. 2002). Several U.S. studies
found that by the age of 4 years stereotypes are well devel-
oped (Fagot et al. 1992), but it takes until about 8 years of
age for gender stereotypes to become more complex, flexi-
ble and similar to adult stereotypes (Martin et al. 1990;
Trautner et al. 2005).
Determining gender stereotypes in children is a challeng-
ing task. It has been done in the U.S. using stories and
pictures (Best et al. 1977) or sorting tasks (Martin et al.
1990;O’Brien et al. 2000) and in Canada with preferential
looking paradigms (Serbin et al. 2001). These types of
measures of gender stereotypes in children have however
Family constellation
Father
Implicit
stereotypes
Explicit
stereotypes
Implicit
stereotypes
Explicit
stereotypes
Mother
Child gender
Stereotypes
Sibling gender
Stereotypes
Fig. 1 Model of associations
between parental gender
stereotypes, child gender
stereotypes, parent gender,
child gender, sibling gender,
and family constellation
Sex Roles

been criticized for being too challenging or not tapping the
stereotype construct (Liben and Bigler 2002). Moreover,
most studies asked children explicitly about their stereo-
types, and did not include measures of implicit gender
stereotyping in children. In a recent study with a sample of
5-, 8-, and 11-year-old Belgian children a computerized task
has been developed that is suitable for assessing implicit
gender stereotypes in very young children (Action Inference
Paradigm, AIP; Banse et al. 2010). This measure’s validity
is promising (Banse et al. 2010), and the AIP is used in the
current study. At this point we don’t know whether the same
predictors are important for explicit and implicit stereotype
development, but the literature does not provide any evi-
dence that they would not be.
Gender Differences in Gender Stereotypes
When studying gender stereotypes of parents and children in
the family context, gender of the parent and child should be
taken into account. There are several studies, mostly con-
ducted in the U.S., on the differences between men and
women in gender stereotypes, but the evidence is not con-
clusive. Some studies do not find gender differences (Benaji
and Greenwald 1995;Swimetal.1995), whereas others
found that men had stronger attitudes about gender than
women (Burge 1981; Jessel and Beymer 1992), or women
had stronger gender-related stereotypes than men (Osterhout
et al. 1997). When stereotypes are assessed explicitly men
display stronger gender stereotypes, whereas the level of
implicit attitudes is similar for men and women (Benaji and
Greenwald 1995; Rudman and Glick 2001;Rudmanand
Kilianski 2000) or somewhat stronger in women (Nosek et
al. 2002a). A meta-analysis that focused specifically on
parental gender stereotypes found that mothers hold less
traditional attitudes about gender than fathers (Tenenbaum
and Leaper 2002), but it should be mentioned that most
studies in this meta-analysis used explicit gender stereotype
measures. A more recent U.S. study that also focused on
parental explicit stereotypes found similar results, with
mothers reporting less traditional attitudes about gender than
fathers (Blakemore and Hill 2008).
Several studies with samples from different countries
show that a gender difference in explicit stereotype strength
is also apparent in children (McHale et al. 1999; Signorella
et al. 1993; Turner and Gervai 1995), but the direction of the
effect is not clear. A meta-analysis found that preschool
boys and girls did not differ in gender stereotypes
(Signorella et al. 1993), which is consistent with the results
of a more recent U.S. study that also focused on preschool
children (O’Brien et al. 2000). However, one other
European study with preschool children indicated that boys
hold more explicit gender stereotypes than girls (Turner and
Gervai 1995).
The Influence of Family Gender Constellation and Sibling
Gender
Few studies examined the influence of family gender constel-
lation on parental gender stereotypes. This is surprising, be-
cause from a family systems perspective one might expect that
family gender constellation would also have an influence on
parents’gender stereotypes, since this theory suggests that
each family member is influenced by the other family mem-
bers (Bowen 1978). The influence of sibling gender on child
gender stereotypes has been studied more often. There is
evidence from U.S. studies with preschool children that sib-
lings have a profound effect on gender role socialization and
explicit gender stereotypes (McHale et al. 1999;Rustetal.
2000; Stoneman et al. 1986). Some studies show that girls
with older brothers and boys with older sisters display less
explicit gender stereotyping than boys or girls with same-
gender older siblings, a finding that has been attributed to
modeling or reinforcement of opposite gender attributes in
mixed-gender siblings (Rust et al. 2000; Stoneman et al.
1986). However, another U.S. study proposed that mixed-
gender siblings might have the strongest explicit gender ster-
eotypes, because parents of mixed-gender children have the
opportunity for gender-differentiated parenting and these
experiences will lead to stronger attitudes about gender in
children (McHale et al. 1999). Although these studies focused
on the influence of the older sibling one might expect that
younger siblings may exert their influence on the gender
stereotypes of older siblings in the more passive way proposed
in the study of McHale et al. (1999), because infants are
unlikely to be active reinforcers of gender attributes. It is
unclear whether this is also the case for implicit gender stereo-
types. In addition, the opportunities for gendered comparisons
of parents in mixed-gender families may also increase the
likelihood of stronger parental attitudes about gender.
The Association Between Parental and Children’s Gender
Stereotypes
According to social learning theory (Bandura 1977) parents are
models for gender stereotypes through their own behaviors,
occupations and interests, but more importantly they reinforce
gender-stereotypical behaviors in their children (McHale et al.
1999). There is considerable evidence, mostly from U.S. stud-
ies, that parents treat boys and girls differently (Chaplin et al.
2005;LyttonandRomney1991; Martin and Ross 2005). For
example, according to a Canadian study with children between
the ages of 5 and 25 months, parents buy their children gender-
stereotypical toys and dress them in gender-specific colors
(Pomerleau et al. 1990), and as found by U.S. studies play in
different ways with boys and girls (Culp et al. 1983), and
encourage same-gender preferred behaviors more than cross-
gender preferred behaviors (Fagot 1978).
Sex Roles

Gender schema theory (Bem 1981,1983) suggests that
the way parents behave towards their children is guided by
gender schemas that consist of gender-typed experiences.
Gender stereotypes can be seen as the functional equivalent
of gender schemas (Hudak 1993) or the result of gender-
schematic processing (Bem 1983). Thus if the gender
schemas of parents consist of stereotypical associations they
are more likely to show gender-differentiated parenting.
Gender schema theory proposes that children will internal-
ize these gender-typed experiences in a gender schema of
their own (Gelman et al. 2004; Witt 1997). The gender-
typed associations that comprise the schema will influence
the processing of subsequent gender-related information and
thereby bias future actions (Bem 1983).
A meta-analysis with samples from various countries found
a small influence of parental gender schemas on their child’s
attitudes about gender (Tenenbaum and Leaper 2002). Most of
the studies in this meta-analysis used explicit measures to
assess child’s gender stereotypes, thus it is unclear whether
parental gender stereotypes also influence implicit stereotypes
of their children. However, two U.S. studies point to a more
prominent role for implicit attitudes about gender, because
parents are largely unaware of their different behaviors to
boys and girls (Culp et al. 1983) and many parents reject
common gender stereotypes, but still apply these stereotypes
implicitly as reflected by their approval or disapproval of
children’s toy preferences (Freeman 2007). One might expect
parental implicit gender attitudes to have a greater impact on
children’s gender attitudes than parental explicit stereotypes
when stereotypes of children are also assessed implicitly. This
may be specifically the case in Dutch society, where gender
stereotypes may be mostly present on the unconscious level
because of the generally high support for gender equality in
the Netherlands.
Gender of the child could also have a moderating effect
on the association between parent and child gender stereo-
types, because preschool boys and girls may vary in their
susceptibility to the rearing environment, according to a
meta-analysis (Rothbaum and Weisz 1994) and a study from
the U.S. (Shaw et al. 1998). Moreover, as suggested in a
review especially mothers show different interactive behav-
iours with sons than with daughters (Maccoby 1990).
Mothers not only talk more to girls than to boys in general,
as found in a U.S. study (Leaper et al. 1998), but they also
talk more about interests and attitudes to girls than to boys,
as indicated by a U.S. study (Boyd 1989) and an Australian
study (Noller and Callan 1990). In addition, mothers have
more opportunities to transmit their gender-stereotypic
beliefs to girls than to boys, since mothers tend to be more
engaged in play with their 6-, 9-, and 14-month-old daugh-
ters, whereas they spend more time watching boys and not
interacting, as found in a U.S. study (Clearfield and Nelson
2006). Therefore it is expected that the association between
mothers’and daughters’gender stereotypes is stronger than
the association between mothers’and sons’stereotypes.
The Current Study
In the current study we test the following hypotheses. (1)
Mothers have stronger implicit gender stereotypes than
fathers (Nosek et al. 2002a), whereas fathers have stronger
explicit stereotypes about gender (Tenenbaum and Leaper
2002); (2) Boys will have stronger implicit gender stereo-
types than girls (Turner and Gervai 1995); (3) Parents with
mixed-gender children will have stronger gender stereotypes
than parents with same-gender children, and mixed-gender
siblings will have stronger implicit gender stereotypes than
same-gender siblings (McHale et al. 1999); (4) Implicit
gender stereotypes of parents and children are positively
associated (Culp et al. 1983; Freeman 2007; Tenenbaum
and Leaper 2002); (5) Mothers and daughters implicit gen-
der stereopes will be stronger associated than for mothers
and sons (Boyd 1989; Clearfield and Nelson 2006; Noller
and Callan 1990).
Method
Sample
This study is part of the longitudinal study Boys will be
Boys? examining the influence of gender-differentiated so-
cialization on the socio-emotional development of boys and
girls in the first 4 years of life. The current paper reports on
data from the first wave.
Families with two children in the Western region of the
Netherlands were eligible for participation in the Boys will
be Boys? study. They were selected from municipality
records. Families were included if the youngest child was
around 12 months of age and the oldest child was between
2.5 and 3.5 years old. Exclusion criteria were single-
parenthood, severe physical or intellectual handicaps of
parent or child, and being born outside the Netherlands
and/or not speaking the Dutch language. Between April
2010 and May 2011, eligible families were invited by mail
to participate in a study on the unique role of fathers and
mothers on socio-emotional development with two home-
visits each year over a period of 3 years. They received a
letter, a brochure with the details of the study, and an
answering card to respond to the invitation.
Of the 1,249 eligible families 31 % were willing to
participate (n=390). The participating families did not differ
from the non-participating families in age of fathers (p= .13)
or mothers (p=.83), educational level of fathers (p=.08) or
mothers (p=.27), and the degree of urbanization of resi-
dence (p=.77). For the current study, families with missing
Sex Roles

items due to computer failure or incomplete questionnaires
were excluded, resulting in a final sample of 355 families. The
35 excluded families also did not differ from the participating
families in age of fathers (p=.66) or mothers (p=.97), educa-
tional level of fathers (p=.82), and the degree of urbanization
of residence (p=.46), but the mothers of the excluded families
had a lower educational level than the mothers in the partic-
ipating families (p=.03).
In Table 1the demographic characteristics of the mothers
and fathers in the sample are displayed. The sample included
similar numbers of the four different family constellations.
Mothers were aged between 25 and 46 years and fathers were
between 24 and 63 years of age. As can be seen in Table 1most
of the participants were married. With regard to educational
level, most mothers and fathers finished academic or higher
vocational schooling. There were no differences between the
family types in maternal age (p=.16) or paternal age (p=.05),
maternal educational level (p=.43) or paternal educational
level (p=.79).
Not all 355 families could be included in the analyses
pertaining to child gender stereotypes because a completed
AIP (Banse et al. 2010) was a requisite for both parents
and their child. Families with children who did not com-
plete (n=54) or made too many errors on the AIP (more
than 50 % of the trials, n=129) were excluded. Overall, 85
boys and 87 girls completed the AIP successfully. This
resulted in a sample of 172 families for the analyses in-
volving child gender stereotypes. Children not completing
or making too many errors on the AIP were significantly
younger (p<.001, M=2.9, SD= .3) than children who com-
pleted the task successfully (M=3.1, SD=.3). The families not
included in the analyses pertaining child gender stereotypes
did not differ from the other families in terms of educational
level of fathers (p=.85) or mothers (p=.34), or age of fathers
(p=.34) or mothers (p=.36). The distribution of family con-
stellations was also similar (23 % boy-boy, 24 % girl-girl,
27 % boy-girl, 26 % girl-boy).
Procedure
Each family was visited twice; once with the mother and the
two children and once with the father and the two children,
with an intervening period of about 2 weeks. The order in
which fathers and mothers were visited was counterbalanced.
Families received a payment of 30 Euros and small presents
for the children. Before the first home-visit both parents were
asked to individually complete a set of questionnaires. During
thehomevisitsparent–child interactions and sibling interac-
tions were filmed, and both children and parents completed
computer tests. All visits were conducted by pairs of trained
graduate or undergraduate students. Informed consent was
obtained from all participating families. Ethical approval for
this study was provided by the Committee Research Ethics
Code of the Leiden Institute of Education and Child Studies.
Instruments
Implicit Association Task
Implicit gender stereotypes of fathers and mothers were
assessed by a computerized version of the Implicit
Association Task (IAT); the family-career IAT (Nosek et
al. 2002a). This version measures the association of female
and male attributes with the concepts of career and family.
The computer task was built with E-prime 2.0 (Schneider et al.
2002) based on the task on the Harvard Project Implicit
demonstration website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/)
and the Nosek et al. (2002a) paper. The task consists of
congruent blocks in which participants are requested to sort
career attributes (e.g., the word ‘salary’) to the male category
and family attributes (e.g., the word ‘children’) to the female
category, and incongruent blocks in which participants have to
sort career attributes to females and family attributes to males.
They sort the stimuli (i.e., words) by pressing a blue button
that corresponds to the male category or a red button for the
Table 1 Sample characteristics (N=355)
Gender children Total
Boy-Boy Girl-Girl Boy-Girl Girl-Boy
Subsamples: % (n) 27 (96) 23 (83) 25 (89) 25 (87)
Age: M(SD)
Mother 33.9 (3.9) 33.9 (3.9) 33.9 (3.9) 33.9 (3.9) 33.9 (3.9)
Father 36.7 (5.1) 36.7 (5.1) 36.7 (5.1) 36.7 (5.1) 36.7 (5.1)
High education: % (n)
Mother 79 (76) 80 (66) 79 (70) 87 (76) 81 (288)
Father 71 (68) 81 (67) 79 (71) 75 (65) 76 (271)
Married/registered
a
:%(n) 93 (89) 93 (77) 95 (85) 94 (82) 94 (333)
a
Registered or cohabitation agreement
Sex Roles

female category. To reduce possible order effects of the pre-
sentation of congruent and incongruent blocks, two precau-
tionary measures were taken (Nosek et al. 2005): the number
of practice trials on the fifth of the seven blocks of the
standard IAT procedure was increased, and two versions
of the IAT were constructed, one in which the congruent
block was first administered and one in which the incon-
gruent block was first administered. As expected, differ-
ence scores between the congruent and incongruent blocks
were significantly higher on the version that started with
the congruent block for both fathers (p<.01) and mothers
(p<.01). The participating families were randomly
assigned to one of the two versions so that the mother
and father within one family always completed the same
version of the IAT. Participants conducted the IAT on a
laptop computer. Reaction time and accuracy were auto-
matically recorded for every trial.
The improved scoring algorithm by Greenwald et al. (2003)
was used to determine each participant’s level of implicit ster-
eotypes. A high positive score represented more difficulties to
pair male attributes to the family concept and female attributes
to the career concept than to pair female attributes to the family
concept and male attributes to the career concept. In other
words, higher positive scores represent stronger stereotypical
ideas about the roles of men and women. Negative scores
represent contra-stereotypical ideas about gender roles.
Action Inference Paradigm
An adapted Action Inference Paradigm (Banse et al. 2010)
for assessing implicit gender stereotyping in children was
used to determine implicit gender stereotypes in parents and
in their oldest child, enabling comparisons between gender
stereotypes of children and their parents. In the AIP presents
from Santa Claus have to be divided between a boy and a
girl. The AIP was built with E-prime 2.0 (Schneider et al.
2002). Similar stimulus material was used as in the Banse et
al. (2010) study, but because of the lower age of the children
in the current sample the task was shortened. The current
task consisted of 20 practice items with red and blue
presents, two congruent blocks (e.g., asking the child to
assign stereotypical girl toys to a girl) with 16 trials and
five practice trials each, and two incongruent blocks (e.g.,
asking the child to assign stereotypical boy toys to a girl)
with each 16 trials and five practice trials. The two congru-
ent blocks alternated with the two incongruent blocks. To
make the procedure more suitable to the Dutch cultural
context, we changed the story from ‘presents from Santa
Claus’to ‘presents for a birthday’. The participants had to
distribute the gifts to the girl or the boy by means of pressing
a red or a blue button (red for the girl, blue for the boy). The
AIP was conducted on a laptop that recorded reaction times
and accuracy scores.
Both parents and the oldest child completed the same
task, with the only exceptionthatchildrenwereguided
through the first five trials of every block as extra practice.
Furthermore, children were not required to push the buttons
themselves to divide the gifts. If it was clear from the
practice block that pushing the button would be too difficult,
pointing to the boy or girl was enough; the experimenter
pushed the corresponding button for the child. However, to
ensure that we indeed assessed automatic responding, the
children were told they had to point to the boy or girl as
quickly as possible, because the boy and the girl were very
eager to play with their birthday presents. As a result of this
altered procedure a different scoring procedure had to be
used for the children. Reaction time could not be used
because the children had not always pushed the buttons
themselves. Instead the difference in accuracy between the
congruent and incongruent blocks was used. In addition,
trials with very long response latencies were eliminated
(e.g., 10,000 ms, derived from Greenwald et al. 2003).
Again, higher positive scores correspond to stronger stereo-
type ideas about boys and girls and negative scores mean
that the child has more contra-stereotypical ideas about the
appropriateness of certain toys for boys and girls. For
parents an accuracy score was also computed. Only reaction
time scores were used for further analyses, because correla-
tions between parent and child stereotypes were the same
regardless of which scoring system was used, and reaction
time scores are more commonly used in the literature
(Greenwald et al. 2003). The children were enthusiastic
about the task.
Given the similarity of the AIP and the IAT, the improved
scoring algorithm of Greenwald et al. (2003) was also
applicable to implicit gender stereotyping of the parent in
the AIP. Higher positive scores represent stronger stereotyp-
ical ideas and negative scores represent more contra-
stereotypical ideas about the appropriateness of certain toys
for boys and girls.
Child Rearing Sex Role Attitude Scale
The Child Rearing Sex Role Attitude Scale (CRSRAS,
Freeman 2007, adapted from Burge 1981) was used to
asses the explicit attitudes of parents about gender-
differentiated parenting of boys and girls (See Appendix
for the Dutch items and English translations). The ques-
tionnaire consisted of 19 items that were completed on a
5-point scale from 0 (strongly agree) to 4 (strongly dis-
agree). Negatively stated items were recoded so that
higher mean scores on the CRSRAS referred to stronger
stereotypical attitudes about gender-specific roles of boys
and girls. The questionnaire was designed in a way that
the items concerned the same statements for boys and
girls separately. For example: “Boys who exhibit ‘sissy’
Sex Roles

behavior will never be well adjusted”and “Girls who are
‘tomboys’will never be well adjusted”. In the current
study, Cronbach’s Alphas of the CRSRAS were .69 for
mothers and .78 for fathers.
Data Inspection
All measures of gender stereotypes were inspected for
possible outliers that were defined as values larger than
3.29 SD above the mean (Tabachnick and Fidell 1996).
Outliers (n=4) were winsorized to make them no more
extreme than the most extreme value that was not yet an
outlier (Tabachnick and Fidell 1996). All variables were
normally distributed. A scatter matrix was used to detect
possible bivariate outliers. Regression analyses were done
with and without bivariate outliers. Exclusion of bivariate
outliers (n=1) did not lead to different results.
Results
Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive statistics for the different gender stereotype
measures are displayed in Table 2. Scores were pre-
sented for mothers, fathers, and children, by family
type. The positive scores on the implicit gender stereo-
type measures indicate that mothers, fathers, and chil-
dren on average have somewhat stereotypical ideas
about gender. Mother’sandfather’sscoresontheex-
plicit stereotype measure were low, indicating egalitarian
attitudes about gender roles. Differences in scores
according to parent gender, child gender, and family
type are addressed in the next sections.
Gender Differences in Parental and Child Gender
Stereotypes
To test for differences in gender stereotypes between
fathers and mothers (hypothesis 1) a paired samples t-
test was used for each gender stereotype measure, be-
cause maternal and paternal gender stereotypes were de-
pendent variables as they refer to parents from the same
families. Mothers and fathers differed significantly in
implicit gender stereotypes about children, t(354) = 3.03,
p<.01, d=.24, and adults, t(354) = 2.65, p<.01, d=.17,
supporting the prediction that mothers had stronger im-
plicit gender stereotypes than fathers (Hypothesis 1).
Mothers and fathers also differed in their explicit stereo-
types, t(354)=−7.85, p<.01, d= .47, indicating support for
the prediction that fathers show stronger explicit gender
stereotypes compared to mothers (Hypothesis 1).
A 2 (gender of the child) by 2 (gender of sibling) analysis
of variance, was conducted to test for differences in implicit
gender stereotype strength between boys and girls. There
was no support for the second hypothesis that stated that
boys would have stronger implicit gender stereotypes than
girls, since no significant differences between boys and
girls in gender stereotypes were found, F(1, 168) = .10,
p=.75, partial η
2
<.01. The results for the main effect of
and interaction with sibling gender are discussed in the
next section.
Parental and Child Gender Stereotypes and Family Gender
Constellation
Overall group differences between same- and mixed-gender
families were tested separately for maternal and paternal
gender stereotypes. Two multivariate analyses of variance
Table 2 Means and standard deviations for the gender stereotype measures and different family constellations (N= 355/172)
Instrument Parent Gender children Family constellation Total
Boy-Boy Girl-Girl Boy-Girl Girl-Boy Same-gender Mixed-gender
M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)
AIP Mother .32 (.37) .29 (.43) .24 (.38) .29 (.34) .31 (.40) .26 (.38) .29 (.38)
a
Father .16 (.40) .19 (.34) .21 (.36) .24 (.40) .17 (.37) .23 (.38) .20 (.38)
b
Child 1.38 (2.14) 1.67 (2.47) 1.55 (2.27) 1.49 (2.09) 1.48 (2.26) 1.57 (2.21) 1.53 (2.23)
IAT Mother .40 (.43) .33 (.40) .36 (.43) .27 (.46) .37 (.42) .31 (.45) .34 (.43)
a
Father .27 (.37) .37 (.42) .24 (.34) .21 (.40) .32 (.40)
c
.22 (.37)
d
.27 (.39)
b
CRSRAS Mother .71 (.32) .63 (.32) .65 (.36) .75 (.38) .67 (.37) .70 (.37) .69 (.35)
a
Father .97 (.42) .80 (.43) .84 (.42) .83 (.40) .89 (.43) .85 (.41) .87 (.42)
b
Scale range AIP and IAT: −2 to +2, CRSRAS: 0 to 4, AIP child: −7to+7
Statistics involving parent measures only are based on N= 355. Statistics involving the AIP for children are based on N= 172
Main effect parent gender:
a
and
b
differ significantly. Main effect family constellation:
c
and
d
differ significantly
AIP Action Inference Paradigm, IAT Implicit Association Task, CRSRAS Child Rearing Sex Role Attitude Scale
Sex Roles

with family constellation (e.g., same-gender versus mixed-
gender families) as the independent variable were con-
ducted; one for fathers’three measures of gender stereo-
types and one for mothers’three measures of gender
stereotypes. It was expected that mothers and fathers with
mixed-gender children would have stronger gender stereo-
types than parents with same-gender children (hypothesis
3). There was an overall group difference for the stereotypes
of fathers, Pillais F (3, 351)=2.72, p< .05, partial η
2
=.02.
This was mainly caused by a main effect on the IAT; in
contrast to our hypothesis fathers with same-gender children
had stronger implicit gender stereotypes about adults than
fathers with mixed-gender children, F(1, 353)=5.51,
p<.05, partial η
2
=.02. Post hoc analyses revealed that in
the same-gender group fathers of two boys did not differ
significantly from fathers with two girls, t(177) = −1.71,
p=.09, and in the mixed-gender group father with a firstborn
boy did not differ from fathers with a firstborn girl,
t(353)=.53, p=.60. There were no differences between
fathers with same-gender or mixed-gender children in
implicit gender stereotypes about children, F(1, 353) =
1.75, p=.19, partial η
2
=.01, or in explicit attitudes about
gender, F(1, 353)= 1.08, p= .30, partial η
2
<.01. Maternal
implicit gender stereotypes about adults, t(353) = 1.24,
p=.22, implicit gender-related attitudes about children,
t(353)=1.04, p=.30, and explicit gender stereotypes,
t(353)=−.67, p=.50, did not differ between families with
same-gender or mixed-gender children.
The analysis of variance with child and sibling gender as
independent variables and children’s implicit gender stereo-
types as the dependent variable (same analysis as mentioned
in section ‘Gender differences in parental and child gender
stereotypes’) did not support the third hypothesis that
gender stereotypes of children with same-gender siblings
would differ from those of children with opposite-gender
siblings, because the interaction between gender of the
child and gender of the sibling did not reach signifi-
cance, F(1, 168)<.01, p= .99, partial η
2
<.01. The main
effect for gender of the sibling was also not significant,
F(1, 168)=.23, p=.61, partial η
2
<.01.
Predictors of Children’s Gender Stereotypes: Moderation
Model
Correlations for the different gender stereotype measures of
mothers, fathers, and children are displayed in Table 3.We
found no significant associations between any of the paren-
tal implicit gender stereotypes and the explicit attitudes
about gender-differentiated parenting. For the implicit gen-
der stereotypes about adults, there was a significant associ-
ation between mother and father scores. This was also the
case for the explicit attitudes about gender, but not for the
implicit gender-related attitudes about children. We also
examined correlations with background variables like pater-
nal and maternal educational level, because this might be a
factor to control for in the regression analysis. Significant
negative correlations were found between explicit attitudes
about gender-differentiated parenting (CRSRAS) of both
mothers and fathers and maternal educational level. The
implicit gender stereotypes about children (AIP) and adults
(IAT) of mothers and fathers were not significantly associ-
ated with educational level. Paternal education level was
negatively associated with children’s gender stereotypes.
A multiple hierarchical linear regression analysis was
conducted to test whether parental implicit gender stereo-
types were positively associated with child implicit gender
stereotypes (Hypothesis 4), and whether mother’sand
daughter’s implicit gender stereotypes were more strongly
associated than mother’sandson’s gender stereotypes
(Hypothesis 5). As recommended by Baron and Kenny
(1986) with regard to testing moderation effects, the cen-
tered main effect variables were entered in the first step of
Table 3 Correlations for the gender stereotype measures, parental educational levels and parental working hours (N= 355/172)
123 4 56 7 8
1. AIP mother
2. AIP father −.01
3. AIP child .12 .02
4. IAT mother .02 −.01 .08
5. IAT father .01 .01 −.01 .31**
6. CRSRAS mother .08 .02 .00 .07 −.07
7. CRSRAS father .08 .05 .01 .05 .08 .36**
8. Educational level mother −.04 .01 −.04 .01 .05 −.16** −.11*
9. Educational level father −.05 .02 −.16* .01 .05 −.01 −.06 .45**
Statistics involving parent measures only are based on N= 355. Statistics involving the AIP for children are based on N= 172
AIP Action Inference Paradigm, IAT Implicit Association Task, CRSRAS Child Rearing Sex Role Attitude Scale
*p<.05 ** p<.01
Sex Roles

the regression analysis and the two-way interactions were
entered in the second step. In addition we controlled for
parental educational levels, by including these variables in
the first step. Results for the final model are presented in
Tab le 4. No main effects of paternal gender stereotypes,
maternal explicit stereotypes, maternal implicit stereotypes
about adults, maternal educational level, and child’s gender
were present. There was a significant main effect of paternal
educational level on children’s implicit gender stereotypes.
The fourth hypothesis was partly supported, because only
maternal implicit gender stereotypes about children signifi-
cantly predicted children’s implicit gender stereotypes.
In support of the fifth hypothesis the interaction between
maternal implicit stereotypes about children and child gen-
der (B=−1.79, S.E.=.89, β=−.22, p<.05) was also signifi-
cant. The interaction effect is shown in Fig. 2. For girls,
gender stereotypes were positively correlated with those of
their mothers (r=.26, p<.05).When mothers showed stron-
ger gender stereotypes, the girls also showed stronger gen-
der stereotypes. For boys no such relation was found. The
interactions between paternal gender stereotypes and child
gender in the model did not significantly add to the predic-
tion of child’s gender stereotypes (AIP; B=.36, S.E.=.92,
β=.04, p=.70, IAT; B=−1.18, S.E. =.99, β=−.14, p=.23,
CRSRAS; B=.47, S.E.=.91, β=.07, p=.61, step 2 R
2
=
1.00). The interactions between maternal implicit gender
stereotypes about adults and explicit gender stereotypes
with child gender also did not significantly add to the
prediction of child’s gender stereotypes (IAT; B=.36,
S.E.=.90, β=.05, p=.69, CRSRAS; B= .68, S.E.=1.10,
β=.07, p=.54, step 2 R
2
=1.00). VIF values for the predic-
tors in the final model range from 1.04 to 2.00, indicating no
problems with multicollinearity
Discussion
Mothers had stronger implicit gender stereotypes about
adults and children than fathers, whereas fathers had stron-
ger explicit gender stereotypes than mothers. Also, fathers
with same-gender children had stronger implicit gender
stereotypes about adults than fathers with mixed-gender
children. Moreover, lower maternal educational level was
related to stronger explicit attitudes about gender in both
parents. When mothers showed stronger gender stereotypes,
their daughters also showed stronger gender stereotypes.
As expected mothers had stronger implicit gender stereo-
types about adults and children than fathers, and fathers had
stronger explicit attitudes about gender than mothers. An
explanation might be that explicit stereotype measures are
prone to social desirability (White and White 2006)and
women generally score higher on social desirability than
men, according to a U.S. study (Hebert et al. 1995) and may
thus report fewer explicit stereotypes. Another explanation is
that cultural gender roles influence the channels that are
acceptable for stereotype expression, as found in a Swedish
study (Ekehammar et al. 2003), rendering it less acceptable for
women than for men to express explicit gender stereotypes.
Women may have implicit gender stereotypes that are not
considered appropriate to present explicitly, whereas men
may use both their implicit and explicit channel in parallel.
It should be noted that the implicit and explicit gender
Table 4 Hierarchical multiple regression analysis predicting child’s
gender stereotypes from maternal and paternal gender stereotypes and
child gender (N=172)
ΔR
2
β
Step 1 .05
Maternal stereotypes (AIP) .28**
Maternal stereotypes (IAT) .12
Maternal stereotypes (CRSRAS) −.03
Maternal educational level .04
Paternal stereotypes (AIP) .04
Paternal stereotypes (IAT) −.08
Paternal stereotypes (CRSRAS) .04
Paternal educational level −.20*
Child gender −.05
Step 2 .03*
Maternal stereotypes (AIP) x child gender −.24*
Total R
2
.08
AIP Action Inference Paradigm, IAT Implicit Association Task,
CRSRAS Child Rearing Sex Role Attitude Scale
*p<.05, ** p< .01
Maternal
g
ender stereot
yp
es
Gender stereotypes child
4.00
2.00
0.00
-2.00
0.00 0.50 1.00
-1.00 -0.50
Boys
Girls
Fig. 2 Interaction between maternal gender stereotypes (AIP) and
child’s gender stereotypes
Sex Roles

stereotypes of both mothers and fathers were not that strong
(e.g., scores in the low range on the explicit level, and small
positive scores on the implicit level). This is not uncommon
for the Netherlands, where support for traditional gender roles
is low (Williams and Best 1990).
Boys and girls, however, did not differ from each other in
the strength of their implicit gender stereotypes. Although
this was not expected, this is in line with several U.S. studies
that focused on explicit gender stereotype development in
preschool children (O’Brien et al. 2000; Signorella et al.
1993). Apparently, gender differences in attitudes about
gender start to develop later in childhood, probably during
the school years where peer influence becomes more pro-
nounced and children encounter more gender-related expe-
riences outside the home.
With regard to family constellation, fathers with same-
gender children had stronger implicit gender stereotypes
about adults than fathers with mixed-gender children, which
is in line with family systems theory in which child charac-
teristics also influence parents. The direction of effect was
not expected, since it was hypothesized that in families with
both a boy and a girl opportunities for gendered compar-
isons are available (McHale et al. 1999), which may confirm
gender stereotypes. However, in families with mixed-gender
siblings parents also have equal opportunity to see similar-
ities between boys and girls (which is not possible in fam-
ilies with same-gender children) which may make it more
difficult to stick to gendered explanations for certain behav-
iors. Regardless of such observed gender differences be-
tween children, having both a boy and a girl may make
the wish to treat the two genders equally and the desire for
happy and successful futures for both of their children more
important for fathers, resulting in more egalitarian attitudes.
In addition, parents of same-gender children may be more
likely to assign similarities between their children as gender
driven and to assign differences between their children as
personality driven. The effect of family constellation was
only found for the implicit gender stereotypes about adults.
Because explicit gender stereotypes are more prone to social
desirability they may be less dependent on family experi-
ences. It appears that family experiences are also less im-
portant for mother’s gender stereotypes, since these were not
related to family constellation.
Contrary to our hypothesis, no differences in implicit gen-
der stereotypes were found between children with same-
gender or opposite-gender younger siblings. Several U.S.
studies have shown that the older sibling has a profound effect
on gender role socialization and the development of explicit
gender stereotypes in the younger sibling (Brim 1958;
McHale et al. 1999;Rustetal.2000; Stoneman et al. 1986).
In our study we examined the influence of a younger sibling
who was only 1 year old. It seems likely that sibling effects do
not emerge for older siblings when the younger child is still an
infant, but will exert their influence in later years.
Alternatively siblings might only have an influence on child-
ren’s explicit stereotypes that were not measured in this study.
Children’s implicit gender stereotypes were only signifi-
cantly predicted by maternal implicit gender stereotypes
about children, although the association was weak.
Convergent with social learning theory and gender schema
theory, mothers’gender schemas may guide their behavior
towards their children and this gender-typed behavior is in
itself a model for gender stereotypes. This finding is also in
line with meta-analytic findings showing that the impact of
mothers on the development of gender stereotypes in chil-
dren is somewhat stronger than that of fathers, because they
spend more time with children and therefore simply have
more time to create gender-related experiences for children
according to their own stereotypes (Tenenbaum and Leaper
2002). It does however not explain why fathers do not have
any influence at all, especially given that two studies (with
U.S. and Hungarian samples) in the meta-analysis that were
similar in design to the current study found that fathers had a
stronger influence than mothers on 4- and 10-year-olds’
gender stereotype development (McHale et al. 1999;
Turner and Gervai 1995). It is possible that fathers’gender
stereotypes become more important predictors of children’s
gender attitudes later in childhood. This is consistent with a
U.S. study on father involvement that shows an increase in
time spent with the child on teaching, household, and social
activities as children grow older (Yeung et al. 2001). The
weak association between mother and child gender stereo-
types suggests that many other factors also influence child-
ren’s attitudes about gender, for example the stereotypic
content of children’s books, television programs, or movies,
as mentioned by several U.S. researchers (Birnbaum and
Croll 1984; Gooden and Gooden 2001; McHale et al. 2003).
The finding that children’s implicit gender stereotypes were
only predicted by maternal implicit gender stereotypes about
children indicates that it is important to measure children’s
and mothers’gender stereotypes with similar types of meth-
ods to uncover such relations.
As hypothesized the association between maternal gender
stereotypes and child gender stereotypes was moderated by
gender of the child. When mothers showed stronger implicit
gender stereotypes about children, their daughters also
showed stronger implicit gender stereotypes. For boys no
such relation was found. This indicates that for boys other
factors than paternal or maternal gender stereotypes influ-
ence their gender stereotype development. The finding that
only mothers’and daughters’gender stereotypes are signif-
icantly interrelated is in line with studies that found that; 1)
mothers talk more to girls than to boys in general (Leaper et
al. 1998), 2) mothers talk more about interests and attitudes
to girls than to boys (Boyd 1989; Noller and Callan 1990),
and 3) mothers have more opportunities to transmit their
Sex Roles

gender-stereotypic beliefs to girls than to boys, since
motherstendtobemoreengagedinplaywiththeir
daughters than with their sons, (Clearfield and Nelson
2006).
Limitations and Recommendations
A limitation of the study is the generally high parental
educational levels. Although the percentage of highly edu-
cated parents is not different from other studies about gender
stereotypes in a family context (e.g., McHale et al. 1999)it
reduces the generalizability of the results, especially because
educational level appears to have an effect on gender stereo-
types. However, in the current study educational level was
only related to explicit gender stereotypes.
A second limitation lies in the scoring of the AIP for
young children. Because some children were not able to
push the buttons, but only pointed to the pictures (with the
experimenter pushing the corresponding button for them),
we could not use the response latency scoring system of the
Banse et al. (2010) study. Instead we used a difference score
for the accuracy in the congruent and incongruent blocks.
However, we are confident that we assessed automatic/im-
plicit responding instead of gender flexibility, because the
children were under time pressure and trials with long
response latencies were excluded. For older children, who
can push the buttons, we recommend the additional use of
the response latency score, because it is similar to the
scoring of the more widely used Implicit Association
Measure. If the associations between the two methods are
promising, the age range of the AIP may be expanded.
Another limitation is that we did not use an explicit attitude
measure for children. The inclusion of an explicit measure
would have given a more complete picture of the prediction of
children’s gender stereotypes from parental attitudes. Future
studies should explore the associations between explicit atti-
tudes of parents and explicit stereotypes of their children, as
well as the association between explicit and implicit attitudes
of the children and the possible cross-associations between
explicit and implicit parent and child attitudes.
Many studies about gender role socialization and gender
stereotype development have been conducted in the 80s and
90s. Given the rapid changes in society regarding gender
roles in the past decades it is important to conduct studies
like the current study. Many mothers in the current study
already had mothers that worked outside the home, and they
themselves have careers more often than not. It is imperative
to examine changes in the attitudes of parents about gender
and how these attitudes relate to the family context. Because
the present study showed that gender stereotypes of children
are best predicted by implicit gender stereotypes about chil-
dren, future studies should explore which specific implicit
messages about gender children receive from their parents.
Conclusion
Association between parental gender stereotypes and child-
ren’s attitudes about gender can be most readily observed
with similar types of measures for parents and children. In
line with family systems theory, parents influence their
children’s implicit gender stereotypes, and children influ-
ence their parent’s gender stereotypes. Expanding the family
systems model to siblings is important, though the influence
of the younger sibling is not yet visible during infancy.
Since explicit gender stereotypes are prone to social desir-
ability, which can lead to differences in gender stereotypes
between fathers and mothers, it is crucial to study both
implicit and explicit aspects of gender stereotypes in both
parents and children to get a complete picture of their
attitudes about gender. Differences between implicit and
explicit gender stereotypes may reflect true differences in
intentional and unintentional attitudes about gender that
influence behavior in different ways. The issue of gender
stereotype development has been somewhat neglected in the
past decades. The current study may contribute to a revival
of interest in gender stereotypes in modern-day families.
Acknowledgement This research was supported by a European
Research Council Starting Grant awarded to Judi Mesman (project #
240885). Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg was supported by the
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (VICI Grant 453-09-003)
Appendix
Dutch items
1. Voor zowel jongens als meisjes is het belangrijk om sociale
vaardigheden aan te leren
2. Alleen jongens zouden concurrerende sporten moeten beoefenen
3. Stille meisjes zullen een gelukkiger leven hebben dan assertieve
meisjes
4. Jongens mogen alleen huilen wanneer iemand ze pijn doet
5. Als mijn zoon zou zeggen dat hij later verpleegkundige wil worden
zou ik hem hierin ontmoedigen
6. Voor mijn zoon en mijn dochter zou ik hetzelfde speelgoed kunnen
kopen
7. Jongens die zich gedragen als een “mietje”zullen zich nooit goed
aanpassen
8. Meisjes die zich gedragen als een “wildebras”zullen zich nooit goed
aanpassen
9. Ouders moeten verschillend omgaan met gedrag van meisjes en
jongens
10. Ik vind het vervelend om te zien als jongens tijdens het spelen een
jurk aantrekken
11. Ik zou een pop voor mijn zoon kunnen kopen
12. Ik zou een mannelijke babysitter niet inhuren
13. Het is voor jongens belangrijker dan voor meisjes om goed te
kunnen concurreren
Sex Roles

14. Ouders die balletlessen voor hun zoon betalen vragen om
problemen
15. Ik zou eerder geld lenen om mijn zoon te laten studeren dan om
mijn dochter te laten studeren
16. Ik zou teleurgesteld zijn als mijn dochter op voetbal zou willen
17. Meisjes zouden gestimuleerd moeten worden om met blokken en
autootjes te spelen
18. Wiskunde en natuurkunde zijn voor jongens en meisjes even
belangrijk
19. Ik zou teleurgesteld zijn als mijn dochter zich als een “wildebras”
zou gedragen
English translation
1. Both boys and girls really need to develop social skills
2. Only boys should be permitted to play competitive sports
3. Quiet girls will have a happier life than assertive girls
4. It is only healthy for boys to cry when they have been hurt
5. I would discourage my son from saying that he wants to be a nurse
when he grows up
6. I would boy my son and daughter the same kind of toys
7. Boys who exhibit sissy behaviors will never be well adjusted
8. Girls who are tomboys will never be well adjusted
9. Parents should set different behavior standards for boys and girls
10. I feel upset when I see boys put on a dress when they play dress-up
11. I would buy my son a doll
12. I would not hire a male babysitter
13. Boys, more than girls, need competitive skills
14. A parent who would pay for ballet lessons for a son is asking for
trouble
15. I would be more willing to borrow money to send a son to college
than a daughter
16. I would be upset if my daughter wanted to play little league
baseball
17. Girls should be encouraged to play with building blocks and toy
trucks
18. Math and science are as necessary for girls as boys
19. I would feel disappointed if my daughter acted like a tomboy
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