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Mexican-American Adolescents’ Gender-Typed Characteristics: The Role of Sibling and Friend Characteristics

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Abstract

This study examined the role of sibling and friend characteristics in Mexican-American youth’s gender-typed characteristics (i.e., attitudes, interests, and leisure activities) in early versus middle adolescence using a sibling design. Mexican-American 7th graders (M = 12.51 years; SD = .58) and their older siblings (M = 15.48 years; SD = 1.57) from 246 families participated in home interviews and a series of seven nightly phone calls. Results revealed that younger/early adolescent siblings reported more traditional gender role attitudes than their older/middle adolescent siblings and older brothers were more traditional in their attitudes than older sisters. When comparing siblings’ gender-typed interests and leisure activities, boys reported more masculine orientations than girls and girls reported more feminine orientations than boys. Older brothers’ gender-typed characteristics were associated with the amount of time spent with and gender characteristics of their friendship group, but for younger brothers, sibling characteristics were associated with their gender-typed characteristics. In contrast, both sibling and friendship characteristics were significantly associated with older and younger sisters’ gender-typed characteristics. The discussion addressed the different correlates of older and younger sisters’ and brothers’ gender-typed characteristics.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the families and youth who participated in this project, and to the following schools and districts who collaborated: Osborn, Mesa, and Gilbert school districts, Willis Junior High School (Chandler School District), Supai and Ingleside Middle Schools (Scottsdale School District), St. Catherine of Siena, St. Gregory, St. Francis Xavier, St. Mary-Basha, and St. John Bosco. We thank Susan McHale, Ann Crouter, Mark Roosa, Nancy Gonzales, Roger Millsap, Ji-Yeon Kim, Jennifer Kennedy, Sarah Killoren, Devon Hageman, Melissa Delgado, Emily Cansler, Lilly Shanahan, Shawna Thayer for their assistance in conducting this investigation. Funding was provided by NICHD grant R01HD39666 (Kimberly Updegraff, Principal Investigator) and the Cowden Fund to the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at ASU.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas State University-San Marcos, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA

    Norma J. Perez-Brena

  2. Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NB, USA

    Lorey A. Wheeler

  3. T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Kimberly A. Updegraff

  4. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    David R. Schaefer

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  1. Norma J. Perez-Brena
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  2. Lorey A. Wheeler
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  3. Kimberly A. Updegraff
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  4. David R. Schaefer
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Correspondence to Norma J. Perez-Brena.

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Perez-Brena, N.J., Wheeler, L.A., Updegraff, K.A. et al. Mexican-American Adolescents’ Gender-Typed Characteristics: The Role of Sibling and Friend Characteristics. Arch Sex Behav 44, 1255–1268 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0447-3

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