Title

Exploration Of "Good Mother" Stereotypes In The College Environment

Keywords

College students; College women; Good mother stereotype; Motherhood; Non traditional students; Parenting students; Stereotypes

Abstract

This study extends research on the good mother stereotype by examining students' perceptions of other students who return to school after having a child. Undergraduate students attending either community college or a 4-year southeastern university within the United States were asked to review a vignette in which a mother's decision to return to college and her role satisfaction were manipulated. The 205 participants rated the woman who elects to continue her education shortly after the birth of a child as significantly less feminine, more dominant, more arrogant-calculating and cold-hearted, and less warm-agreeable than the mother who discontinued her education. The impact of these results is discussed in the context of Tinto's (Review of Educational Research 45, 89-127, 1975) classic theory of student retention and Eagly and Steffen's (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 46, 735-754, 1984) theory of gender stereotypes. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Publication Date

2-1-2009

Publication Title

Sex Roles

Volume

60

Issue

3-4

Number of Pages

223-231

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9519-y

Socpus ID

67349177001 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/67349177001

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