DO THE STEREOTYPES FIT? MAPPING GENDER‐SPECIFIC OUTCOMES AND RISK FACTORS*

It has generally been accepted that boys and girls differ in their behavioral and emotional responses to stressful family events. These gender differences could be due to either different family risk factors affecting boys and girls or to boys coping differently in response to the same negative family events. These two alternative hypotheses form the basis of our analysis. Specifically, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we assess whether and how (1) marital discord, (2) marital stability and change, (3) harsh discipline, and (4) maternal deviance impact three different outcomes for males and females: delinquency, alcohol use, and depression. Multivariate analyses reveal that, although females generally display more vulnerabilities to specific dimensions of family life than males, the responses to these risk factors are not constrained to gender-stereotypic outcomes.

[1]  Joan McCord,et al.  The Cycle of Crime and Socialization Practices , 1991 .

[2]  E. Menaghan,et al.  Determining Children's Home Environments: The Impact of Maternal Characteristics and Current Occupational and Family Conditions. , 1991 .

[3]  M. Straus.  Discipline and deviance: Physical punishment of children and violence and other crime in adulthood , 1991 .

[4]  P. Lachenbruch,et al.  Social structure, stress, and mental health: Competing conceptual and analytic models. , 1991 .

[5]  J. Kaufman,et al.  Depressive disorders in maltreated children. , 1991, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[6]  M. Krohn,et al.  Testing Interactional Theory: An Examination of Reciprocal Causal Relationships among Family, School, and Delinquency , 1991 .

[7]  M. Krohn,et al.  Class, Compliance Structures, and Delinquency: Assessing Integrated Structural-Marxist Theory , 1990, American Journal of Sociology.

[8]  V. Mcloyd,et al.  The impact of economic hardship on black families and children: psychological distress, parenting, and socioemotional development. , 1990, Child development.

[9]  D. Kandel.  Parenting styles, drug use, and children's adjustment in families of young adults. , 1990 .

[10]  E. M. Hetherington,et al.  The impact of divorce on life-span development: Short and long term effects. , 1990 .

[11]  F. Furstenberg.  Divorce and the American Family , 1990 .

[12]  C. Widom.  CHILD ABUSE, NEGLECT, AND VIOLENT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR* , 1989 .

[13]  J. Laub,et al.  UNRAVELING FAMILIES AND DELINQUENCY: A REANALYSIS OF THE GLUECKS' DATA* , 1988 .

[14]  R. Angel,et al.  Single motherhood and children's health. , 1988, Journal of health and social behavior.

[15]  D. W. Goodwin,et al.  Sex of Parent and Offspring in the Transmission of Alcoholism: A Meta-Analysis , 1987, The Journal of nervous and mental disease.

[16]  J. P. Newmann.  Gender Differences in Vulnerability to Depression , 1987, Social Service Review.

[17]  H. White,et al.  Gender role orientation and styles of pathology among adolescents. , 1987, Journal of health and social behavior.

[18]  Stephen A. Cernkovich,et al.  FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS AND DELINQUENCY , 1987 .

[19]  N. Garmezy.  Stress, competence, and development: continuities in the study of schizophrenic adults, children vulnerable to psychopathology, and the search for stress-resistant children. , 1987, The American journal of orthopsychiatry.

[20]  T. Achenbach,et al.  Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. , 1987, Psychological bulletin.

[21]  Frank F. Furstenberg,et al.  The children of adolescent mothers: physical academic and psychological outcomes. , 1986 .

[22]  J. Peterson,et al.  Marital Disruption, Parent-Child Relationships, and Behavior Problems in Children. , 1986 .

[23]  Stephen A. Cernkovich,et al.  Friendships and Delinquency , 1986, American Journal of Sociology.

[24]  M M Weissman,et al.  Lifetime prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders in three sites. , 1984, Archives of general psychiatry.

[25]  D. Kandel,et al.  Patterns of drug use from adolescence to young adulthood: III. Predictors of progression. , 1984, American journal of public health.

[26]  M Davies,et al.  Epidemiology of depressive mood in adolescents: an empirical study. , 1982, Archives of general psychiatry.

[27]  R. Emery.  Interparental conflict and the children of discord and divorce. , 1982, Psychological bulletin.

[28]  R. Canter.  Family Correlates of Male and Female Delinquency , 1982 .

[29]  J. Block,et al.  Parental Agreement-Disagreement on Child Rearing Orientations and Gender-Related Personality Correlates in Children. , 1981 .

[30]  K. O’leary,et al.  Marital discord and childhood behavior problems , 1980, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[31]  Christy A. Visher,et al.  Sex and Involvement in Deviance/Crime: A Quantitative Review of the Empirical Literature , 1980 .

[32]  V. Cain,et al.  The children of teenage parents. , 1980, Family planning perspectives.

[33]  E. M. Hetherington,et al.  Play and Social Interaction in Children Following Divorce , 1979 .

[34]  J. Santrock,et al.  Father Custody and Social Development in Boys and Girls , 1979 .

[35]  Frances Fox Piven,et al.  Hidden Protest: The Channeling of Female Innovation and Resistance , 1979, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

[36]  R. Eme.  Sex differences in childhood psychopathology: a review. , 1979, Psychological bulletin.

[37]  A. Gillis,et al.  The sexual stratification of social control: a gender-based perspective on crime and delinquency. , 1979, The British journal of sociology.

[38]  Delbert S. Elliott,et al.  An Integrated Theoretical Perspective on Delinquent Behavior , 1979 .

[39]  A. R. Harris.  Sex and Theories of Deviance: Toward a Functional Theory of Deviant Type-Scripts , 1977 .

[40]  B. Dohrenwend,et al.  Sex Differences and Psychiatric Disorders , 1976, American Journal of Sociology.

[41]  R. S. Welsh.  Severe parental punishment and delinquency: A developmental theory , 1976 .

[42]  Raymond A. Eve,et al.  SEX DIFFERENCES IN DELINQUENCY , 1976 .

[43]  L. Robins,et al.  Arrests and delinquency in two generations: A study of black urban families and their children. , 1975, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[44]  M. Rutter.  Parent-child separation: psychological effects on the children. , 1971, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[45]  R. R. Morris.  Female Delinquency and Relational Problems , 1964 .