IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/chinre/v14y2021i3d10.1007_s12187-021-09802-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Preadolescents’ Stereotypical Occupational Preferences: a Matter of Competence or Culture?

Author

Listed:
  • Laora Mastari

    (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

  • Bram Spruyt

    (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

  • Jessy Siongers

    (Vrije Universiteit Brussel
    Ghent University)

Abstract

One of the clearest manifestations of how gender norms come into play, is the overrepresentation of men and women in gender stereotypical occupations. Therefore, this paper studies occupational preferences and their relationship with perceived gender typicality, perceived pressure for gender conformity from friends and discontent with gender boundaries among preadolescents (N = 795) in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium (Flanders). Discriminant analysis enables us to develop an original and sensitive measure for gendered preferences. Subsequently, we use multivariate regression analyses to study the variation in gendered occupational preferences. Models are separately estimated for boys (n = 395) and girls (n = 400) and further include their academic self-concept, socio-economic and socio-cultural background. The main finding of this study indicates that boys’ and girls’ stereotypical occupational preferences are differently related to gender norms. While boys’ gender stereotypical preferences relate to their perceived pressure for gender conformity from friends, this does not apply to girls. For girls, the results indicate that their stereotypical occupational preferences reflect an important part of their gender typical identity. Moreover, girls who feel confident about their academic capabilities aspire less gender stereotypical occupations. The results also indicate the relevance of considering socio-economic and socio-cultural background variables when studying preadolescents’ occupational preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Laora Mastari & Bram Spruyt & Jessy Siongers, 2021. "Preadolescents’ Stereotypical Occupational Preferences: a Matter of Competence or Culture?," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(3), pages 1199-1225, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:chinre:v:14:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s12187-021-09802-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s12187-021-09802-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12187-021-09802-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12187-021-09802-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kay, Aaron C. & Jost, John T., 2003. "Complementary Justice: Effects of "Poor But Happy" and "Poor But Honest" Stereotype Exemplars on System Justification and Implicit Activation of the Justice Motive," Research Papers 1753r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    2. Raúl Navarro & Elisa Larrañaga & Santiago Yubero, 2016. "Gender Identity, Gender-Typed Personality Traits and School Bullying: Victims, Bullies and Bully-Victims," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 9(1), pages 1-20, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin, Ashley E., 2023. "The divergent effects of diversity ideologies for race and gender relations," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    2. Jessica Harding & Chris Sibley, 2013. "The Palliative Function of System Justification: Concurrent Benefits Versus Longer-Term Costs to Wellbeing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 401-418, August.
    3. Roland Bénabou & Jean Tirole, 2006. "Belief in a Just World and Redistributive Politics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 699-746.
    4. Laurin, Kristin & Kay, Aaron C. & Proudfoot, Devon & Fitzsimons, Gavan J., 2013. "Response to restrictive policies: Reconciling system justification and psychological reactance," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 152-162.
    5. Achille Vicky DZUETSO MOUAFO & Hermann Kevin EKANGO NZEKAIH & Stéphane SOGBOU LOYEM, 2021. "Adherence to complementary gender stereotypes and attitudes towards male infidelity," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 5(1), pages 447-453, January.
    6. Tine Bock & Iris Vermeir & Patrick Kenhove, 2013. "“What’s the Harm in Being Unethical? These Strangers are Rich Anyway!” Exploring Underlying Factors of Double Standards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 225-240, January.
    7. Santiago Yubero & Elisa Larrañaga & Beatriz Villora & Raúl Navarro, 2017. "Negative Peer Relationships on Piracy Behavior: A Cross-Sectional Study of the Associations between Cyberbullying Involvement and Digital Piracy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-12, October.
    8. Kiju Jung & Ellen Garbarino & Donnel A. Briley & Jesse Wynhausen, 2017. "Blue and Red Voices: Effects of Political Ideology on Consumers’ Complaining and Disputing Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(3), pages 477-499.
    9. Shalini Sarin Jain & Joon Sung Lee, 2022. "Allegations of Sexual Misconduct: A View from the Observation Deck of Power Distance Belief," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(2), pages 391-410, January.
    10. Rajesh Iyer & James A. Muncy, 2016. "Attitude toward Consumption and Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 48-67, March.
    11. repec:cup:judgdm:v:12:y:2017:i:5:p:507-515 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Matej Avbelj & Janez Šušteršič, 2019. "Conceptual Framework and Empirical Methodology for Measuring Multidimensional Judicial Ideology," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 2, pages 129-159, June.
    13. Jost, John T. & Blount, Sally & Pfeffer, Jeffrey & Hunyady, Gyorgy, 2003. "Fair Market Ideology: Its Cognitive-Motivational Underpinnings," Research Papers 1816, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    14. Nikhil K. Sengupta & Chris G. Sibley, 2019. "The Political Attitudes and Subjective Wellbeing of the One Percent," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(7), pages 2125-2140, October.
    15. Belmi, Peter & Neale, Margaret, 2014. "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? Thinking that one is attractive increases the tendency to support inequality," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 133-149.
    16. Arthur Sakamoto & Jason Rarick & Hyeyoung Woo & Sharron Wang, 2014. "What underlies the Great Gatsby Curve? Psychological micro-foundations of the “vicious circle” of poverty," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 13(2), pages 195-211, November.
    17. Lawton K. Swan & John R. Chambers & Martin Heesacker & Sondre S. Nero, 2017. "How should we measure Americans’ perceptions of socio-economic mobility?," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 12(5), pages 507-515, September.
    18. Metin Camgoz, Selin & Bayhan Karapinar, Pinar & Tayfur Ekmekci, Ozge & Metin Orta, Irem & Ozbilgin, Mustafa F., 2024. "Why do some followers remain silent in response to abusive supervision? A system justification perspective," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 872-882.
    19. Jim A C Everett, 2013. "The 12 Item Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (SECS)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-11, December.
    20. Paweł Grygiel & Sławomir Rębisz & Anna Gaweł & Barbara Ostafińska-Molik & Małgorzata Michel & Julia Łosiak-Pilch & Roman Dolata, 2022. "The Inclusion of Other-Sex Peers in Peer Networks and Sense of Peer Integration in Early Adolescence: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-24, November.
    21. Proudfoot, Devon & Kay, Aaron C. & Mann, Heather, 2015. "Motivated employee blindness: The impact of labor market instability on judgment of organizational inefficiencies," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 108-122.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:chinre:v:14:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s12187-021-09802-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.