Social Development Across The Lifespan In Diverse Cultur

Child Health And Human Development

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

In this project, we are investigating ways in which variations among rearing environments (especially as indexed by parental beliefs, values, and practices) affect children's development. In one study, gender differences in the self-perceptions of two cohorts of 7th to 12th graders are being assessed longitudinally so that the antecedents and correlates of different styles of self-perception in adolescence could be explored. Rating themselves in 11 different roles, girls perceived themselves as more affiliative and less negatively affiliative in many roles than boys did, but gender differences in assertion were not reliable and girls' assertiveness did not decline over time. These results contrast with popular claims regarding girls' "loss of voice" in adolescence. Gender differences were context-specific, and were more pronounced in ratings of Myself as a boy/girl and Myself with a close same-sex peer. To explore antecedents of these gender differences further, portions of the self-perception battery were completed by a group of Swedish 15-year-olds whose development has been documented systematically since infancy. Analyses of these data are currently underway, but preliminary analyses suggest few reliable correlates of individual differences in the Swedish sample.