Parents’ Reactions to Adolescents’ Gender Norm Violations as Motivated Gendered Parenting

SYNOPSISObjective. Gendered parenting refers to practices that reinforce gender norms. In the current studies, we were interested in parents’ reactions to their adolescent children’s gender norm violations as a form of gendered parenting. Drawing on theoretical predictions from research on reactions to gender norm violations and gendered parenting, we investigated the dimensions on which parents would express negative reactions to violations of gender norms, and whether these reactions differed for sons versus daughters. Design. We focused on parents of adolescents (12 to 17 year) and investigated three different domains of gender norm violations (career choices, personality traits, and overall gender group-dissimilarity) and also examined potential differences in reactions to sons’ or daughters’ gender norm violations as well as the moderating role of parents’ gender essentialist beliefs. In two cross-sectional studies (N = 708), parents reported their attitudes toward their adolescent’s gender norm violations (referring to 51 sons and 41 daughters in Study 1, and 281 sons and 325 daughters in Study 2) across the previously mentioned domains. Results. When parents endorsed essentialist beliefs, they reacted more negatively/less positively to violations of gender norms, though this overall pattern varied between the investigated domain of gender norms. Overall, the effect of child gender revealed more negative attitudes toward sons than daughters. Conclusions. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for understanding gendered parenting and reactions to gender norm violations.