Predicting adolescent gender role attitudes : Socio-demographic characteristics, family context, and school peer gender culture

Abstract

Research into the construction of individuals' gender role attitudes (GRA) has primarily focused on the effects of socio-demographic characteristics and primary socialisation. Despite the school environment being recognised as a critical context of socialisation for adolescents' GRA, quantitative research focusing on the dynamics of gender attitudes during adolescence remains conspicuously understudied. This study investigates the interplay between individual characteristics, the family context, and school peer gender culture on adolescents' GRA in Flanders (Belgium). A longitudinal survey was administered (Npupil = 4063; Nschool = 57) and multilevel regression analysis confirms that pupils from lower socioeconomic backgrounds as well as boys express traditional GRA. It also indicates the importance of religion, rather than religious affiliation, in the construction of traditional GRA. Furthermore, primary socialisation via parental GRA remains an important predictor, although GRA socialisation also takes place within schools through the prevailing school peer gender culture.