Sex-Role Attitudes of Mothers and Children in Divorced, Single-Parent Families

This study attempts to discover whether or not single parents and their children have non-traditional sex-role attitudes and report non-sex-stereotyped behavior. In a sample of single-parent, divorced mothers and their children responding from a randomly selected target population, the mothers were libera1 in sex-role attitudes, although degree of liberality varied with education, occupation, religion and political values. Children reflected their mothers' attitudes and there was no significant difference in the correlation between mothers' and male and female children's scores. The degree of correlation between the mothers' and children's sex-role beliefs is influenced by the education and occupation of both the mother and the absent father. In spite of the mothers' professed desire to have their children act in non-traditional ways, children did sex-stereotyped chores and were encouraged to engage in sex-stereotyped activities. The children, themselves, preferred traditional behavior, although some girls foresaw nontraditional behavior and occupations in the future.