Parental influence on children’s gender roles

Parental influence on children’s gender roles

Parents have a special place in the lives of children as established in most families. The parents influence the development and nurturing of children in various ways, including psychological, emotional, intellectually and behaviour. Multiple studies indicate that the parent’s attitudes, behaviours and interests have a direct correlation to the children’s attitudes and behaviours (Marjanovic & Fekonja-Peklaj, 2017). That is, children tend to copy what their parents do and use. They also emulate socialization habits and ethical values that parent’s exhibit. Concerning gender roles, parents equally have a considerable stake. The parents help by shaping gender stereotypes, biases and perceptions in the families. They expose the male children to family roles, household tasks and masculine leisure activities and girls to feminine tasks and practices (Marjanovic & Fekonja-Peklaj, 2017). Likewise, the parents influence gender roles among children through parent-child plays and exposure to biological preferences. Notably, roles and behaviours are nurtured over time in people. Majority of people exhibit behaviours and habits that are nurtured over time (Vangelisti, 2013). Most people who guide the young ones in most cases are parents since they are the people who spend much time with them. Even though a divergent school of thought that children assume roles naturally depending on their specific gender, research proves the inevitable role of parents in shaping the roles, behaviour and development of children.

Indeed, children are born with unique traits, character, behaviours and gender inclination. They have no idea or the repercussions of what they do at the tender ages of 1-3 in most instances. Their inferiority towards environmental comprehension is manifest from their behaviour and response to various stimuli. Their innocence is equally evident from the way they play and engage with others. It is at the developmental stages of 1-3 years and 3-5 years when their lives are shaped, but the question is, by who. The need to understand how the character, behaviour and roles of children are shaped has triggered the execution of several studies. The studies reveal far-reaching and informative data on how parents play a critical role in nurturing children.

First, parents continued to shape gender roles among children through symbolic play during the pre-school period (Kollmayer et al., 2019). Parents always encourage symbolic play by exposing girls to games where objects, actions and ideas are used to represent other objects, actions and ideas. For instance, they are exposed to games where girls are allocated motherly roles such as cooking, while boys are allocated fatherly roles. Girls are frequently exposed to the symbolic games as boys focus on more sophisticated functions and levels of play. The games help the young children to align the roles they assume during play period with future actions and behaviours (Kollmayer et al., 2019). In the same breath, the parent’s beliefs and general knowledge of a child’s development influence how the children are spoken to and the activities that they assigned. Research reveals that parents who know their children well are more in tune with their children and in the process, the parents strengthen their language abilities, interaction capacity and speech fluency (Marjanovic & Fekonja-Peklaj, 2017). Children who are in constant communication with the parents are always active, talkative and attentive to details which makes them become better people.

Similarly, early training on diverse phenomenon determines the quality of a person in future. The training and character development in young children gives them the ability to advance socially, psychologically and mentally. Parents influence changes through parental attitudes and behaviours (Cunningham, 2018). For instance, children of diverse gender embrace the roles that the parents have a positive attitude towards. If a mother has a positive attitude towards cooking or kitchen activities, there is a higher possibility that the girl child will emulate the activity (Valentine, 2015). The same applies to boys who lean towards the actions, behaviour and attitude of the fathers. Moreover, parents shape the role of children using household and task allocation. In most instances, girls are allocated feminine or light tasks, while boys are exposed to difficult tasks (Cunningham, 2018). The interaction between the women and men during and after the tasks are allocated take on gender symbolic meaning.

Parents also influence the roles of children through systematic socialization of young people to various gender roles. Children mostly learn various tasks and duties through gender stereotypes and biases (Farr et al., 2018). What parents do, believe in, and embrace is reinforced automatically in children. This makes the family unit the most important setting and stage where the development of gender roles takes place. The parents pass their covert and overt behaviours, including belief about a specific type of gender (Farr et al., 2018). For instance, a child’s early exposure to how and what it means to a female or male gender comes from parents. The reinforcement is further affirmed as parents treat daughters and sons differently. They dress them in gender-aligned colours, give gender-differentiated toys and expect them to behave in particular styles (Pauletti et al., 2017). The differential expectations of boys and girls enable the young ones to internalize parental messages concerning gender issues very early in life. It also emerges that the roles men and women play in most instances, emanate from the preferential treatment they receive from parents. For instance, most parents prefer male children and the same parents are pro-technology. As a consequence, the children they nurture will also love technology and become technical-oriented in their approach to life (Pauletti et al., 2017). While boys are trained in technical things, girls are trained to be successful companions to men. The trend enables them to make good wives and play companionship duties excellently.

According to Karre (2015), parental guidance in toy selection and responses to toy play are critical elements the shape gender socialization. Assigning toys based on gender stereotypes inculcates a culture that is synonymous to the specific toys. The desirability of toys for children that helps them develop particular role attitudes is the same way parent’s educational level, and careers influence the careers and educational progress of the young ones (Valentine, 2015). There is a high chance that a child of an educated person with a well-paying career will succeed as compared to a child from a low profile or a humble background. Such children will also be competent because they would be playing with well-versed parents who expose them to encouragement materials and opportunities that prepare them to play at higher levels.

Conclusion

Ultimately, parents play a significant role in the life of children as they grow. The parents are the people who children have contact with most of the time while still at tender ages. The periods between 1-3 and 3-5 years are critical in the life of children since they are the formative and developmental periods that things must be gotten right. This is because everything one does, a child will emulate and embrace as the yardstick of social, emotional and intellectual development. Parents influence gender roles directly and indirectly. For instance, they shape their roles through exposure to symbolic plays, selection of toys, reinforcement of feminine and male characters and gender stereotyping, among others.