Abstract
Gender ideologies, which are constantly changing, are important for many outcomes in life, but the majority of gender ideology research focuses mainly on adults. Past research studying adult gender ideologies finds that adults' current relationship status affects their ideologies. For instance, divorced adults hold egalitarian ideologies more than stable married adults do (Davis, Greenstein and Marks 2007). Researchers attribute this finding to the types of gender behaviors adults perform with their partner or alone. What about youth? Understanding how these ideologies develop earlier in life is important, yet research rarely focuses on youth gender ideologies or their development. My research looks at the effects of family structure on youth gender ideology in Germany (Germany National Educational Panel Study (NEPS); Cohort One N=4,181; Cohort Two N=9,913). I argue it is through doing gender that family structures operate to influence the development of youth gender ideology, since parents' doing gender behaviors performed with their children vary by family structure. My findings suggest family structure does not matter for doing gender behaviors that parents perform with their children, thereby affecting their gender ideologies. As a result, it is more about other ways adults do gender outside of the home or about the youth themselves. I also find significant effects for females, suggesting females may invest more in the outcomes egalitarian gender ideologies produce. Future research should look at shifts in family structure and duration in various family structures in order to understand family structure's impact on gender ideology for youth.
Degree
MS
College and Department
Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Sociology
Rights
http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Alexander, Alyssa Jane, "Differences in German Youth Gender Ideologies: The Relationship Between Family Structure and Doing Gender" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 6541.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6541
Date Submitted
2017-07-01
Document Type
Thesis
Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd9367
Keywords
gender ideology, doing gender, family structure, youth, Germany
Language
english