Post 2

      As I stated in my first blog post I wanted to look at how stereotypes in the home affected children. I wanted to know if children followed what their parents do, and how they think about stereotypes. Sinno and Killen (2009) performed a study on children in different grades on their perceptions of stereotypes within the home. In their review of other literature they found that even though women’s role in the work force has increased in the United States, there is still division of labor within the home. Sinno, and Killen (2009) also found in their reviews that parents are the biggest contributor to children’s knowledge of gender roles. 

      The purpose of their study was to find out what children’s judgments were about career and caretaker roles, relating to their own life of parents and what role they played. Sinno and Killen (2009) hypothesized that the desire to work a full time job is acceptable for both parents, that children would view fathers who wanted to stay at home and be a caretaker as unacceptable, also they thought that children would use more gender stereotypes views when mothers and fathers desired stereotypical roles, and then a more personal choice view when parents chose a counter-stereotypical role. Sinno and Killen (2009) also believed that children would see making dinner as more of a stereotypical chore for woman to do, and it would be more acceptable for woman to take on masculine roles. In their research Sinno and Killen (2009) wanted to look at difference of age and their views on gender roles. 

       To conduct their study they took 67 second graders and 54 fifth graders. The students were interviewed for 30 minutes by a trained female research assistant. The students were given four different scenarios. Two of which focused on female stereotyped parental role, such as making dinner, and cleaning and the other two focused on male stereotype roles, such as working full time. After given the scenarios the students were asked questions, for example is it alright for both mom and dad to want full time jobs, and stay at home.

        Sinno and Killen (2009) results found that it was more acceptable for mothers to stay at home with the children and that the fathers should be outside of the home working a full time job. The results showed that the children fell into the stereotype that woman should be the stay at home moms and dads should be out making money for the family, and that it was not acceptable for that role to switch. Looking at age, however, the fifth graders found it more acceptable for a father to want to stay at home. The date also proved their hypothesis of traditional families who follow stereotypical roles, and untraditional families. Children who grew up in a traditional family were more apt to look at mothers being the caretakers and fathers being the worker as the way to go, when untraditional families were more for personal choice. 

        Overall this study shows that stereotypes in the home do strongly affect what children believe, even though as they seem to get older they are more flexible towards different ideas. I want to look more into different studies to see just how these stereotypes affect different people. I think it would be interesting to see how gender roles in the home are seen in different countries, and also do a little more research on gender roles and the affect on children and their beliefs.




Reference:
Sinno, S. M., & Killen, M. (2009). Moms at work and dads at home: Children's evaluations of parental roles. Applied Developmental Science, 13(1), 16-29. doi:10.1080/10888690802606735