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T he Family Context of Gender Intensifieationin Early Adolescence

Ann C. Crouter, Beth A.Manke , and Susan M.McHale

The Pennsylvania State University

CROUTER, ANN C ; MANKE, BETH A,; and MCHALE, SUSAN M, The Family Context of Gender

Intensification in Early Adolescence. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1995, 66,317-329, This longitudinalstudy of 144 young adolescents (ages 9-11 at phase 1) examined the hypothesis that boys andgirls would experience increased "gender-differential socialization" across a 1-year period inearly adolescence, and that such patterns would be stronger in families in which (a) parentsmaintained a traditional division of lahor, and (b) there was a younger sibling of the oppositegender. Longitudinal analyses of3 aspects of family socialization (adolescents' participation in

"feminine" and "masculine" household chores; adolescents' involvement in dyadic activitieswith mothers and fathers; parental monitoring) revealed that gender intensification was apparentfor some aspects of family socialization hut not others. Inaddition, when gender intensificationwas apparent, it generally emerged in some family contexts but not in others. Only dyadicparent-adolescent involvement was characterized by an overall pattern of gender intensificationin which girls became increasingly involved with their mothers and boys with their fathers; thispattern was exacerbated in contexts where adolescents had a younger, opposite-sex sibling.

Researchers interested in development arez (1990) explain: "Social pressures forin early adolescence have noted that boys sex-appropriate behavior are relatively be-and girls during this period exhibit increas- nign during middle childhood, particularly

ing divergence in several key psychosocial forgirls. With the onset of puberty, however,

domains (Galambos, Almeida, & Petersen, both psychological and social forces act to1990; Hill &Lynch, 1983), Over time, there increase awareness of gender roles and ef-is a widening gap in certain domains of forts to adhere to them" (p, 158),

school achievement, such as math (Linn & c • • l -j c ix. j-ccn ^ inoc\ r ^-^ J J Empirical evidence for these dmeren-Petersen, 1986), sex-role attitudes, andmas- i- l • v I-

I- i. //-• T u 4, I inr>A\ J ,j- tial socialization processes is scarce; re-culinity (Galambos et al,, 1990), and lndica- u • lu- u ^ J J i r

r I , . 1 J. . , 1 ir search in this area has tended to iocus ontors 01 psychological adjustment such as sell- U ' J - I ' J - • .^ r uesteem and anxiety (Hill & Lynch, 1983; ^" . , f ^]^ ' diverging patterns of psycho-r.. DI iU 1? r i s n u ir>Tr.\ social functioning in early adolescence andSimmons, Blyth, Van Cleave, & Bush, 1979), ^ . . ^ ^ j ^ ^ ^ socialization experiences under-

It has been proposed that this increasing lie them. In a review of the literature on th edivergence in the psychosocial functioning gender intensification hypothesis. Hill andof boys and girls in early adolescence "is the Lynch (1983) noted that: "Despite the many

result of increased socialization pressure to sensible and intriguing notions about the

conform to traditional masculine and femi- mechanisms underlying differential gender

nine sex roles" (Galambos et al,, 1990, p, socialization during adolescence, most ex-1905), In early adolescence, it is argued, isting studies focus upon gender differences

boys and girls are treated increasingly differ- alone and do not include conceptually rele-

ently, with independence encouraged in vant explanatory or mediating variables inmales and compliance encouraged in fe- their designs" (p, 203), Research is needed

males (Hill & Lynch, 1983), Huston and Alv- not only on the hypothesized divergence in

Parts of this article were presented at the Society for Research inChild Development, New



31 8 Child Development

boys' and girls' psychosocial outcomes inearly adolescence, but also on changes over

time in their day-to-day socialization experi-ences. In this article, gender intensificationrefers to divergence over time in adolescentboys' and girls' daily experiences in theirfamilies.

What might be some of the key dimen-sions of family life that would signal genderintensification? Adolescents' involvement inhousework is one promising candidate be-cause housew ork is a dom ain of activity tha tis sex-typed for both children and adults

(Berk, 1985; Duckett, Raffaelli, & Richards,1989; McHale, Bartko, Crouter, & Perry-Jen kin s, 1990; W hite & Brinkerhoff, 1981)and has been described as an activity inwhich children learn about gender roles(Goodnow, 1988). Moreover, using cross-sectional survey data on children ages 6 to16, White and Brinkerhoff (1981) reportedthat sex-typed patterns of participation inhousework increased with age.

We might also expect to see adolescentsspend more time in joint activities with thepare nt of the sam e sex. Fath ers and sons andmothers and daughters may increasinglypair up in early adolescence bec ause parentssee socializing th eir same-sex ch ild as part oftheir role, becaus e comm unity groups createactivities for same-sex pare nt-ado lescen t dy-ads (e.g., scouts. Little Leag ue), and becau sesame-sex parent-adolescent pairs may sharemore interests (Huston, 1983). Finally, Hilland Lynch (1983) suggest that parents may

become increasingly protective of girls,while tolerating greater independence inboys. If this is so, we might expect to seeparents become more engaged in mon itoringthe activities, wh ereabo uts, and com panionsof daughters and perhaps less vigilant aboutmonitoring sons.

An important question to consider withregard to gender intensification in family so-cialization processes is whether (1) these

processes are normative phe nom ena, experi-enced by young adolescents regardless of

gender intensification is a universal phe-nomenon but that its strength is increased

or decreased by contextual conditions; thethird option suggests that gender intensifi-cation might be apparent in some contextsbut not in others. Working from an ecologi-cal perspective (Bronfenbrenner & Crouter,1983), we expected that gender intensifica-tion in family socialization would not neces-sarily be characteristic of the experiences ofall children, but would depend in part ontheir family contexts. Specifically, we wereinterested in two characteristics of the fam-ily env ironm ent: (1) the traditionality of par-ents ' division of hou sewo rk, and (2) the p res-ence of a you nger sibling of the o ppo site sex.

Parents' division of housework is poten-tially imp ortant bec ause it is a visible indica-tor of how parents handle gender roles. Weexpected that gender intensification patternswould be stronger for adolescents growingup in households in which their parentsmaintained a "traditional" division of labor,with wives performing the great majority of

the household tasks (McHale, Grouter, &Bartko, 1992), and weak for youth growingup in families ch aracterized by a mo re "ega l-itarian" parental division of labor. Parentswith a traditional division of labor, we rea-soned, would b e more likely to assign ho use-hold chores on the basis of sex and to modelsex-typed patterns of involvement in house-work than would parents with a more egali-tarian division of labor in the marriage.

We also suspected that gender intensi-fication migh t be g reater in families in w hichthere was an opposite-sex sibling. In theircross-sectional stu dy. White and Brinkerhoff(1981) reported a weak effect indicating thatthe presence of a sibling of the opposite sexincreased the extent to which children'schores were allocated along gender lines.Similarly, Brody and Steelman (1985) foundthat parents reported more sex-typed atti-tudes about the household chores boys andgirls should perform when they had off-

spring of both gend ers. In add ition, the pres-ence of a sibling of the opposite sex may



Crouter, M anke, and McH ale 3 1 9

personality characteristics emphasized ex-pressive (i.e., feminine) behavior in theirdaughters. Lynch found that while both tra-ditionally masculine and androgynous fa-ttiers placed more emphasis on expressive-ness in later pubertal than early pubertaldaughters, the contrast was most striking fortraditionally masculine fathers. Thus, gen-der intensification was exacerbated in famil-ial settings in which fathers had traditionallymasculine personality characteristics andwas muted in contexts in which fathers de-scribed themselves as more androgynous.We know of no studies, however, that have

examined the impact of features of familycontext on longitudinal patterns of adoles-cent girls' and boys' socialization experi-ences in the family.

The present study examined continuityand change across a year in early adoles-cence in three dimensions of familial social-ization hypothesized to exhibit increasedsex-typing over time: (1) adolescents' in-volvement in household chores (i.e., "femi-nin e" and "m ascu line" hou sehold tasks); (2)adolescents' involvement in dyadic activi-ties with their mothers and fathers; and(3) mothers' and fathers' monitoring of theiradolescent's activities, companions, andwhereabouts. Gender intensification wouldbe indicated by girls becoming more in-volved in feminine household tasks, experi-encing more involvement in dyadic activi-ties with their mothers (and not with theirfathers), and receiving more parental moni-toring over time. Boys, on the other hand,

were expected to become more involved intraditionally masculine household tasks andin joint activities with their fathers (but notmothers), and to receive less parental moni-toring over time. The possible moderatingrole of parents' division of labor and thepres enc e of a sibling of the opp osite sex wasthe focus of the analyses.

Method

SampleThese analyses were conducted on alongitudinal data set collected to examine

grader was the old est child in the family, andthere was at least one younger sibling(2) the family was "intact" (step-familieswere excluded); and (3) the father was employed full-time (mothers' work hours werevariable). At phase 1, the sample consistedof 152 families. At ph ase 2 , which took placea year later, 144 families remained in thestudy; they constitute the sample for this in-vestigation. In general, participating families were white, middle and working classand resided in small towns, cities, and ruraareas. Analyses comparing the backgroundcharacteristics of families with a "tradi

tional" and a more "egalitarian" division olabor (defined below) are presented in theResults.

ProceduresAt both phases, families participated in

two types of data collection: home interviews and a series of telephone intei-views

Home interviews.—At each phase, ateam of interviewers interviewed mothers

fathers, and target adolescents about workand family life, as well as family memberssubjective evaluations of their family relationships, roles, and activities.

Telephone interviews.—In the 2 to 3weeks following the home interviews, families were telepho ned on 7 different evenings(5 weekdays; 2 weekends) and asked, in asystematic way, abo ut the activities in whichthey were involved during that particuladay. These calls, which lasted from 30 to 40

min, took place shortly before the adolescent's bedtim e so that we wo uld have a complete record of the youth's activities and experiences that day. Three of these callsinvolved separate interviews with motheand adolescent, three were with father andadolescent, and the seventh and final call involved all three family members. The telephone data were the source of informationabout adolescents' involvement in household chores, parent-child involvement in

joint activities, parental monitoring, and parents ' division of household work.




Adolescents' participation in householdtasks.—In each telephone interview, ado-

lescents were asked whether they had per-formed each of 12 househ old tasks. For eachtask performed, they were asked how manytimes they had performed the activity, howlong they had spent on the task, and withwhom they had performed the task. Our cat-egorization of household chores along gen-der lines was based both on the literature(e,g,, Medrich, Roizen, Rubin, & Buckley,1982; W hite & Brinkerhoff, 1981) and onanalyses of the extent to which these activi-ties were differentially performed by boysand girls in our sample (see McHale et al,,1990), Our index of invo lvem ent in feminin etasks was created by aggregating time (i,e,,minutes) spent making beds, cleaning, pre-paring food, doing dishes, and doing laundryacross all 7 days. Involvement in masculinetasks was created by aggregating time spenttaking out the garbage, doing outdoor work,and handling home repairs across all 7 days,(Four gender-neutral tasks, e,g,, feedingpets, were omitted from the analyses re-

ported here because they are not sex-typed,)At phase 1, girls on average spent 126 minin feminine (SD = 97) and 35 min in mascu-line tasks (SD = 109), For boys, the meanswere 74 min for feminine (SD = 72) and 52min for masculine tasks (SD = 83),

Paren t-child joint activities.—Thehouseh old tasks data, described above, wereembedded in a larger interview designed toassess participation in 32 activities in which

young adolescents are often involved (seeCrouter & Crowley, 1990), These 32 activi-ties included indoor leisure (e,g,, watchingtelevision, playing a video game), outdoorleisure (e,g,, involvement in sports activi-ties), family activities such as meals, andpersonal development activities (e,g,, work-ing on homework; attending a religious ser-vice). For each activity, the adolescent wasasked whether he or she had performed theactivity that day, and, if so, for each occur-

rence of the activity, how much time wasspent on the activity, and who else was in-volved. For these analyses, we created an

Measures based on our telephone activ-ity data have been shown to be both reliable

and valid. In the analyses reported here, werely on adolescents' reports of houseworkand dyadic activities with parents becausewe have more days of data from adolescentsthan from parents (i,e,, seven versus fourtelephone interviews). Previous studiesbased on this data set have repo rted satisfac-tory levels of "interrater reliability," as as-sessed by correlations of parents' and ado-lescents' reports of activities performedtogether, as well as high test-retest reliabil-ity for questions asked twice during thesame telephone interview (see McHale etal,, 1990), In addition, the measures haveface validity and have been shown in otherstudies to be correlated with other indicesof family and individual functioning inmeaningful ways (see Crouter & Crowley,1990; McHale et al,, 1990, 1992), At phase1, girls on average spent 102 min in jointactivities with their mothers (SD = 90) and48 min with their fathers (SD = 60), Boys atphase 1 spent 91 min on average in dyadic

activities with their mo thers (SD = 132) and73 min with their fathers (SD = 85),

Parental monitoring.—We developedour measure of parental m onitoring based onPatterson and Stouthamer-Loeber's (1984)approach to this issue. We asked parents andadolescen ts a set of que stions e ach nigh t thatthe parent could answer correctly only if heor she had monitored the adolescent's expe-riences that day. Question topics included

school experiences such as homework andtests, leisure activities, household chores,purchases, where and with whom the ado-lescent spent time that day, and the qualityof the adolescent's interactions with siblingsand friends. The monitoring items wereidentical for mothers and fathers at phases 1and 2, Within each phase, however, differentquestions were asked each night, and moth-ers and fathers were asked the monitoringitems in different sequences so that they

could not prepare for the questions in ad-vance (see Crouter et al,, 1990, for a list ofthe monitoring items). To create an index of



Crouter, M anke, and McHale 3 2 1

measure also correlates in meaningful wayswith adolescents' school achievement andperceptions of school competence, and withparents' and adolescents' views of adoles-cents ' problem behavior (Crouter et al,,1990), phenomena identified as "outcomes"of poor parental monitoring in other studies(e,g,, Patterson & Stoutha mer-L oeber, 1984),At phase 1, the mean for maternal monitor-ing was 21,6 for girls (SD = 13,5) and 2 0,8for boys (SD = 11,3), The average paternalmon itoring score at pha se 1 was 27 ,4 for girls(SD = 16,2) and 24,1 for boys (SD = 15,3),

Paren tal division of labor.—Husbandsand wives reported their involvement ineach of 11 household tasks, (The samehousehold tasks were reported by parentsand adolescents, with the exception of "sib-ling caregiving," which was reported onlyby adolescents,) To ascertain the division oflabor, we created a ratio variable reflectingwives' share of the total parental task load:the total amount of time wives spent on allhousehold tasks divided by the total amountof time spent by both parents on housework.

To categorize families on the basis of thetraditionality of parents' division of labor,we performed a median split on the ratiovariable. Families in which mothers per-formed more than 75% of all houseworkwere categorized as "traditional," whilethose in which mothers performed less than

75% of the household chores were catego-rized as "egalitarian" (see McHale &Crouter, 1992; McHale et al,, 1992),

Results

Background Characteristics of Traditionaland Egalitarian Fa mily Contexts

We first compared families with a tradi-tional versus a more egalitarian division oflabor on background characteristics in orderto describe these contexts more completely(see Table 1), A series of one-way ANOVAs

revealed that wives in traditional familiesworked fewer hours, earned less money, andheld jobs of lower occupational prestige thanwives in egalitarian families. In additionhusbands in traditional families workedmore hours than their counterparts in egali-tarian families. Thes e differences should nobe seen as "confounds"; instead, they canbe interpreted as antecedents of the divisionof labor because wives with fewer job-related resources are less able to negotiatewith their husbands for a more equitable di-

vision of labor (McHale & Crouter, 1992)Thus , traditional and egalitarian familiesrepresent contrasting family ecologies thatdiffer not only in terms of parents' divisionof labor but also in terms of the "resources"wives bring to the family from the world ofwork.

TABLE 1

MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS FOR BACKGROUND CHARACTERISTICS OF SAMPLE

TRADITIONAL FAMILIES EGALITARIAN FAM ILIES

(n = 72) (n = 72)

M SD M SD

Fainily size 4,5 ,67 4,4 ,70A dole scen t's age 10,4 ,62 10,4 ,62Sib ling 's age 7,5 1,71 7,2 1,77Wife's age 36,3 4,10 35,8 3,6H usb and 's age 37,8 4,93 37,4 4,6

Wife's educa tion " 4,6 1,15 4,9 1,5H usban d's edu catio n 5,1 1,46 5,4 1,5



32 2 Child Developm ent

Data Analytic Strategy for AnalysesFocused on Gender Intensification

To examine the possible role of contextin adolescents' experience of gend er intensi-fication, our analysis plan called for a seriesof mixed-model ANOVAs with repeatedmeasures, with participation in femininetasks, participation in masculine tasks,involvement in dyadic activities, and paren-tal monitoring as the dependent variables.These analyses utilized a 2 (adolescent gen-der) X 2 (sibling gend er) x 2 (parental divi-sion of labor) x 2 (time) design, with time asa repeated measure. The analyses of dyadic

involvement and parental monitoring in-cluded "parent" (i.e., mother vs. father) as asecond repeated measure.

We were interested primarily in thoseinteractions tha t involv ed both tim e and ado-lescent gender because, depending on thepattern of means, these could signal genderintensification. In the results to follow, wedo not report significant findings that are tan-gential to the questions we are asking. We

first report any significant main effects, andthen report the time x adolescent genderinteraction (or pare nt x time x a dole scentgender interaction in those analyses inwhich "parent" was included as a repeatedmeasure), because such findings may signalan overall pattern of gender intensification.We then report any higher-order significantinteractions involving both time and adoles-cent gender because these might indicate:(1) that gender intensification was exacer-

bated in some contexts and minimized inothers, or (2) that gender intensification wasapparent in some settings and not apparentin others. When we found significant inter-actions involving time and adolescent gen-der, we performed "special post-hoc com-parisons" with Bonferroni corrections, asrecommended by Hertzog and Rovine(1985).

We performed special post-hoc comp ari-

sons because, in light of the literature ongender intensification, we were not inter-ested in all possible comparisons; this strat-

Adolescents' Involvement in FeminineHousehold Tasks

The ANOVA focused on adolescents'involvement in feminine househ old tasks re-vealed main effects for time and gender,with adolescents generally decreasing theirinvolvement in feminine tasks over time andgirls spending more time in feminine tasksthan boys, F (l , 136) = 7.16, p < .01; F( l ,136) = 21.02, p < .01 , for time and adoles-cent gender, respectively. The time x ado-lescent gender interaction was not signifi-cant, F (l , 136) = .53, N.S., indicating tha tan overall pattern of gender intensificationwas not apparent. However, a significantfour-way interaction (time x adolescentgender x sibling gend er x p arental divi-sion of labor) was found, F(l, 136) = 4.85,p < .05. To follow up, we compared the lon-gitudinal pattern for girls from traditionalfamilies with younger brothers with that ofthe rest of the sam ple be caus e girls from tra-ditional families would be the group ex-pected to becom e most involved in femininetasks, especially if their y oung er siblin g was

a brother. This comparison was not signifi-cant, F (l , 136) = 1.47, N.S. We then con-ducted the same comparison separately foreach pha se. No significant differencesemerged at phase 1; however, at phase 2,girls from traditional families with brothersperformed significantly more feminine tasksthan other adolescents, F(l, 136) = 7.25, p <.01. As can be seen in Figure 1, adolescentgirls in traditional families with b rothers hada longitudinal pattern suggestive of genderintensification in that they main tained a highlevel of involvement in these activities overtime, while the rest of the samp le ev idence ddeclining participation. (Group means andstandard deviations can be found in Table2.)

Adolescents' Involvement in MasculineHousehold Tasks

The analysis of participation in mascu-line tasks revealed no significant main ef-

fects. In addition, the time x adolescentgender interaction was not significant, F(l,136) = .02, N.S., indicating that no overall



Crouter, M anke, and McH ale 3 2 3

Girls with younger brothers

in traditional families All Others

150Participation (Mins.)

100 -

0 Time 1 Time 2

F I G , 1,—Adolescents' participation in feminine household tasks

ihe conti'ast was significant, albeit at thelevel of a trend , F (l , 136) = 3,25, p < ,08,(Because only four groups were involved inthe interaction, we include them all in Fig,2; the follow-up analysis, however, simplycompared boys in traditional family contexts

with all other adolescents,) While boys intraditional families increased their involve-men t in masculine tasks over the year, otheradolescents generally dec reased th eir partic-ipation in these activities, (See Table 3 forgroup means and standard deviations,)

Ado lescents' Involvement in JointActivities with Mothers and Fathers

With regard to adolescents' involvem entin dyadic activities with parents, we founda main effect for parent, indicating that

mothers were more involved in joint activi-ties, overall , than were fathers, F (l , 136) =

136) = 9,78, p < ,01 , Con sistent with ouprevious analyses, we expected that havina sibling of the opposite sex would predispose an adolescent to spend more time withis or her same-sex parent. Indeed, the folow-up test revealed that boys with y ounge

sisters exhibited a greater increase over timin their joint activities with fathers than diall other adolescents, F (l , 140) = 5.42, p ,05, and girls with younger brothers increased their involvement in dyadic activties with mothers more over time than diall other adolescents, F (l , 140) = 9,84, p ,01 (see F igs, 3 and 4 and T able 4),

A strict interpretation of the "gender intensification hyp othe sis" would suggest thaboys with younger sisters and girls wityounger brothers would not only increasthe time spent with the same-sex parent bu




TABLE 2

MEANS (and Standard Deviations) FOR MINUTES SPENT IN

FEMININE HOUSEHOLD TASKS BY PARENTAL DIVISION OF LABOR,CHILD'S GENDER, AND YOUNGER SIBLING'S GENDEB

Time 1 Time 2

Traditional families;Boys with younger brothers

(n = 15) 57.9 3L2(57.4) (26.6)

Boys with younger sisters(n = 16) 51.1 49.8

(46.3) (53.7)

Girls with younger brothers(n = 17) 114.2 118.9(75.1) (82.0)

Girls with younger sisters(n = 24) 132.9 89.9

(128.3) (52.1)

Egalitarian families:Boys with younger brothers

(n = 15) 77.2 81.7(83.6) (85.3)

Boys with younger sisters(n = 18) 102.1 61.6

(87.5) (41.8)Girls with younger brothers(n = 17) 137.7 87.6

(83.2) (91.4)Girls with younger sisters

(n = 22) 121.3 97.9(95.6) (83.2)

.62, N . S . In this analysis, however, the maineffect for the post-hoc comparison was sig-nificant, F (l , 140) = 8.93, p < .01, indicatingthat girls with younger brothers spent lesstime alone with their fathers than did othersoverall but that this pattern didnot becomemore pronounced over time.

In summary, with regard to longitudinalpatterns of dyadic involvement with thesame-sex parent, an overall gender intensi-fication pattern was apparent, and this pat-tern was exacerbated for adolescents whohad a sibling of the opposite sex. We found

no evidenc e, however, that this particular di-mension of gender-differential socializationwas stronger in families with a traditional

the analysis of parental monitoring revealedno gen der intensification pattern . M ain ef-fects w ere found for time , F (l , 136) = 12.21,p < .001, and parent, F(l, 136) = 27.22, p <

.001, indicating that parents became bettermonitors over time, andmothers were gen-erally better monitors than fathers. In addi-tion, a time x parental division of labor in-teraction was found, F(l, 136) = 6.40, p <

.05; mothers and fathers in traditional fami-lies became better at monitoring over time,while their counterparts in egalitarianhouseholds maintained their level ofinvolvement in monitoring over time. The

time X adolescent gender interaction, how-ever, was not significant, F(l, 136) = 1.46,



Boys in tradit ional famil ies

Crouter, Manke, and McHale 325

Boys in egalitarian famil ies

Girls in tradit ional famil ies Girls in egalitarian famil ies

150

100

Participation (Mins.)

Time 1 Time 2F I G . 2.—Adolescents' participation in masculine household tasks

intensification depends in part on the di-mension of family socialization that is exam-ined and on the nature of the familial con-text. Both the traditionality of parents 'division of labor and the presence of an op-posite-sex sibling mattered for some aspectsof the gender intensification of adolescents '

family experiences, but not for others. Theseresults highlight the importance of lookingat gender intensification in family socializa-tion experiences "in context."

Adolescents exhibited an increasinglsex-typed pattern of involvement in feminine household tasks over time when theiparents divide d chores along traditional gender lines and when a younger sibling of thopposite sex was present . The pattern ogender intensification in masculine tas

involvement appeared for boys, regardlesof the sex of the younger sibling, when parents divided housework along traditionalines. Parents' division of labor was not r

TABLE 3

MEANS (and Standard Deviations) FOR MINUTES SPENT INMASCULINE TASKS BY PARENTAL DIVISION OFLABOR

AND CHILD'S GENDER

Time 1 Time 2



Girls withyounger brothers

Girls withyounger sisters

150

100

Involvement (Mins.)

Boys with

younger brothers

Boys withyounger sisters

Time 1 Time 2

F I G . 3.—Adolescents' dyadic involvement with mother

Girls withyounger brothers

Boys withyounger brothers

Girls withyounger sisters

150

100

Involvement (Mins.)

Boys withyounger sisters



Crouter, M anke, andMcHale 327

MEANS (and Standard

Boys with youngerbrothers (n = 30)

Boys with youngersisters (n = 34)

Girls with youngerbrothers (n = 34)

Girls with youngersisters (rs = 46)

Deviations) FOR

TABLE 4

MINUTES SPENT

CHILD'S GENDER AND YOUNGER

DYADIC INVOLVEMENT

WITH MOTHER

Time 1

95,6(121,4)

85,4(147,3)

103,7(88,1)

95,8(88,1)

Time 2

50,4(66,7)

77,8(86,5)

140,3(129,9)

64,1(64,1)

IN DYADIC INVOLVEMENT WITH PARENTS BY

SIBLING'S GENDER

DYADIC INVOLVEMENT

WITH

Time 1

68,4(94,4)

74,6(71,0)

34,7(46,7)

61,4(68,2)

F A T H E R

Time 2

74,3(141,7)

126,7(190,5)

27,7(41,5)

42,2(54,7)

lated, however, to joint activities with same-

sex parents. The general pattern here was

one of gender intensification exacerbated by

the presence of a younger sibling of the op-posite sex. Finally, we found no evidence of

gender intensification in parental moni-

toring,

A finding that merits further comment is

that the traditionality of parents' division of

housework was related to adolescents' in-

creasingly sex-typed patterns of involve-

ment in feminine and masculine household

chores over time, but not to longitudinal pat-

terns of adolescents' involvement in dyadic

activities with same- and opposite-sex par-

ents. Because parents' division of labor and

adolescents' involvement in housework both

involve the same activity—household

chores—a modeling process may be the

mechanism underlying these results. Girls

whose mothers perform the majority of

chores stand out for their involvement in

tasks like cooking, cleaning, and laundry, a

pattern that mirrors their mothers' activities.

The gender intensification pattern is most

apparent for girls with younger brothers,suggesting that parents in traditional house-

least with regard to involvement in house

work, young adolescents experience less

gender-difFerentiated socialization when

they grow up with fathers who take on alarger share of housework.

The traditionality of parents' division o

housework, however, was not associated

with longitudinal patterns of boys' and girls

dyadic activities with mothers and fathers

Instead, the salient feature of family contex

was the sex of the secoud-bom sibling. This

is a particularly interesting aspect of family

context because it is generally not "se

lected" by anyone, A roll of the reproductive

dice determines whether a sibling is a

brother or a sister; this feature of family con

text has implications for certain features o

gender-intensified socialization in early ado

lescence. Specifically, girls spend more time

in dyadic activities with their mothers ove

time when they have brothers, and boys

spend more time in joint activities with thei

fathers when their next-bom sibling is a

sister.

Exactly why this pairing off along gender lines occurs is unclear. It may have to do




Although several discussions of the gen-der intensification hypothesis have sug-gested that parents become more protective

of daughters than of sons in early adoles-cence, we found no evid enc e for this processwith respect to parental monitoring. Severalexplanations for our failure to find a patternof gender intensification in our monitoringdata come to mind. First, the measure maynot focus on the right issues; items includesuch topics as homework and school tests,househo ld chores, and sibling and peer rela-tions. The se items may not tap parental con-cerns about safety and girls' vulnerability in

the face of their emerging sexuality. It is alsopossible that parental protectiveness ofdaughters does not emerge until later in ado-lescence and that our monitoring measurewould detect gender intensification patternsin an older sample. Alternatively, social-historical change may be an explanation.Hill and Lyn ch's (1983) review of the gen derintensification hypothesis appeared a de-cade ago. Paren ts of you ng ado lescents todaymay see the world as an uncertain and dan-gerous place for adolescents, a worldview

that would result in similar increases inmonitoring over time of both boys and girls.

The strengths of this study include thedetailed me asures of family socialization ex-periences gathered across 7 days, the longi-tudinal design , the focus on family pro cessesrather than psychological ou tcomes, and th eability to draw upon data from mothers, fa-thers, and young adolescents. The fact thata diverse set of family socialization experi-

ences was examined is an additionalstrength because the analyses revealed thatgender intensification characterized somebut not all of the patterns of change and thatcontextual features were related to some as-pects of family socialization but not toothers.

The limitations of the study suggest sev-eral avenues for future research. First, thestudy encompassed only a year. At the be-ginn ing of the stu dy , chi ld ren w ere IOV2 on

average; given that early adolescenceroughly enc om passes the years from 10 to 14

change over time could be examined. In astudy that encompasses more of the adoles-cent period, it would also be useful to mea-

sure adolescent development with indica-tors that are more conce ptually sophisticatedthan the marker of age (Hill & Lynch, 1983;Wohlwill, 1973). Galambos et al. (1990), forexample, examined pubertal timing (i.e. ,early, late, and on time) with regard to gen-der intensification in masculinity, feminin-ity, and sex role attitudes. Galambos and hercolleagues did not find systematic relation-ships between pubertal timing and genderintensification patterns in these psychoso-cial outcomes. It is possible that parents' re-sponse to their children's changing physicalappearance may be linked to gen der in tensi-fication in some dimensions of family social-ization. We could not analyze the effects ofpubertal status in this study, however, be-cause too few adolescents (particularly themales) in our sample had experienced pu-bertal change by the second phase of datacollection.

Finally, the findings with regard to sib-

ling gender suggest the importance of col-lecting longitudinal family process data notonly on a "target adolescent" but on otherchildren in the family. For example, a"within-family" design would permit com-parisons of family socialization experiencesof same- and opposite-sex siblings withmothers and fathers to test hypotheses aboutwhether sons and daughters in the samefamily experience increasingly divergent,sex-typed patterns of family socialization,

and whether such divergence is greater infamilies in which parents maintain tradi-tional marital roles than in more egalitarianfamily con texts. This ap proach is in line w iththe burgeoning interest in developmentalresearch in families as "non-shared environ-m ents " (Dunn & Plomin, 1990). Testing thisnotion with a "within-family design" prom-ises to reveal much about the intersection ofperson, process, and context, the three cen-tral focuses of the ecology of human devel-opm ent (Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983),

and wou ld go a long way toward pu tting g en-der intensification processes "in context."



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