On the relations between parents’ and children’s implicit and explicit academic gender stereotypes.

Abstract

Although parents may represent influential sources of children’s gender stereotypes, to date no study has directly investigated the relations between parents’ and children’s gender stereotypes regarding academic abilities. Aiming at filling this gap, in the present study parents’ and their young children’s gender stereotypes about math and language were assessed using both explicit and implicit measures for each member of the family. Sixty-eight Italian 6-year-olds, their mothers, and their fathers (a) performed an Implicit Association Test designed to assess implicit gender stereotypes about math and language, and (b) completed a measure of the relevant explicit stereotypes. Fathers’, but not mothers’, implicit stereotypes predicted children’s implicit and explicit stereotypes. Conversely, no predictive role emerged for parents’ explicit gender stereotypes about math and language. Results are discussed also in relation to the role of fathers as targets of interventions to prevent academic gender stereotypes within the family.