Abstract
It was hypothesized that male day care teachers who had adopted the “feminine” role of caregiver would score feminine in their personality traits and would reinforce children for feminine behaviors and punish them for masculine behaviors. A random sample of 20 male caregivers was contrasted to 20 male engineers on personality traits as assessed by The Adjective Checklist (ACL). Twenty female caregivers were also contrasted to the personality traits and the sex-typed contingency behaviors of the male caregivers. Feminine traits were defined by raw scores on the Abasement, Nurturance, Affiliation, Succorance, and Deference scales of the ACL. Masculine traits were represented by raw scores on the Achievement, Dominance, Endurance, and Autonomy scales. The Fagot-Patterson Checklist was employed to determine sex-typed contingency behaviors. Both male and female caregivers reinforced children significantly more for feminine behaviors than masculine behaviors (as defined by The Fagot-Patterson Checklist) and punished masculine behaviors more than feminine behaviors. The personalities of the male caregivers corresponded to the feminine direction of their female counterparts, but they were not significantly more feminine than the male engineers. The female caregivers, however, scored significantly more feminine in personality than the male engineers.
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This study is based on a dissertation submitted by Bryan E. Robinson to the Department of Child Development — Family Relations, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D.
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Robinson, B.E., Canaday, H. Sex-role behaviors and personality traits of male day care teachers. Sex Roles 4, 853–865 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287705
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287705