Parenthood and the Attitudes of Young Adults

The association between parenthood sex role attitudes and aspirations was examined through data from the US National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. Those who became parents since 1976 were significantly more traditional in terms of sex role attitudes than those who remained childless although the difference was not as dramatic among blacks. Those who became parents in the 1976-79 period tended however to have been more traditional from the beginning. When earlier traditional-egalitarian value orientations were controlled the transition to parenthood was found to exert differing effects according to the race and marital status of the respondent. For white married respondents becoming a parent has a clear and traditionalizing influence. On the other hand for unmarried black female parents parenthood leads to more egalitarian attitudes. Among black men-married or unmarried--parenthood has no significant effect on values. These findings are interpreted to represent the costs and benefits of traditional sex roles to different groups under different situations. The arrival of a child is generally accompanied by traditional role adjustments whereby the wife becomes the primary caretaker and the husband the primary wage-earner. Single parents in contrast are not able to organize their life in this manner and can be expected to become more egalitarian. Other factors predisposing black mothers toward a more nontraditional value stance include lower marriage rates the high incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies and difficulties faced by black men in finding adequate employment. It is stressed that this survey focused on high school graduates now 22-25 years of age and the results should not be generalized to other ages and times until they are replicated in future research.