SEX-ROLE DEVELOPMENT IN SINGLE PARENT HOUSEHOLDS

Abstract

In order to examine the relationship between sex-role development and number of parents in the home, 129 adolescent age college students (73 women, 56 men) were administered a life history questionnaire and the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (short form) (BSRI). With the sexes combined, 54 individuals were classified as androgynous and 75 as nonandrogynous. As predicted, there was a higher percentage of androgynous individuals who were reared in single-parent households as opposed to “intact” households. These results indicate that the development of an androgynous sex role has a strong relationship to number of parents in a family, particularly single parent homes in which the mother is the parent. An implication of these results is that parents who model adaptive yet nontraditional roles may play an important role in the healthy development of their children.