Gender role attitudes and their psychological effects on Chinese youth

Abstract

Questions from the World Values Survey were administered to 404 undergraduates at a Chinese university to explore the relationships among rural and urban experience, gender role attitudes, and psychological well-being. Results showed that female students were more gender egalitarian than were male students. Female students with traditional gender role attitudes were more likely to be from rural than urban areas, display lower subjective health, and report lower life satisfaction. Male students with traditional gender role attitudes scored higher on life satisfaction than did traditional females. The results imply that exposure to urban living experiences leads to more egalitarian gender role attitudes, and that this attitude is accompanied by better psychological well-being for females. Limitations of the findings are discussed.