Nurse or Mechanic? The Role of Parental Socialization and Children's Personality in the Formation of Sex-Typed Occupational Aspirations

Javier Polavieja and Lucinda Platt ()
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Lucinda Platt: Department of Quantitative Social Science, Institute of Education, University of London

No 12-10, DoQSS Working Papers from Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London

Abstract: This study investigates the role of parental socialization and children’s agency in the formation of sex-typed occupational preferences using data for British children aged between 11 and 15. We anchor agency in observable psychological attributes associated with children's capacity to act in the face of constraints. We focus on two such attributes, motivation and self-esteem. Our findings identify two main sources of parental influence: 1) parental socio-economic resources, which affect children's occupational ambition, and 2) parental sex-typical behaviors, from which children learn which occupations are appropriate for each sex. We find, additionally, that girls with high motivation and both girls and boys with high self-esteem are less likely to aspire to sex-typical occupations, net of inherited traits and parental characteristics. Motivation and self-esteem help girls to aim higher in the occupational ladder, which automatically reduces their levels of sex-typicality. In the case of boys, however, self-esteem reduces sex-typicality at all levels of the aspired occupational distribution. This suggests that boys with high self-esteem are better equipped to contradict the existing social norms regarding sex-typical behavior. The implications of our findings are discussed.

Keywords: Gender Segregation; Occupational Aspirations; Children; Socialization; Personality Traits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J16 J24 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-12-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-dem and nep-evo
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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