Evaluations of Children's Gender Stereotypic Activities by Korean Parents and Nonparental Adults Residing in the United States

Objective. To determine how parents evaluate decisions about children's autonomy, Korean mothers and fathers as well as nonparental female and male adults, all living in the United States, were interviewed about parental decisions regarding children's engagement in gender consistent and gender inconsistent extracurricular activities. Design. A homogeneous sample of parents and nonparental adults (N = 80) participated to control for social experience beyond parental status. Participants were interviewed about whether it was acceptable for parents to allow their sons and daughters to engage in gender consistent (boy plays baseball, girl takes ballet), gender inconsistent (boy takes ballet, girl plays baseball), and gender neutral (boy goes to a sleepover, girl goes to a sleepover) peer activities, along with questions about autonomy, gender preferences, parental jurisdiction, cultural change, and stereotype knowledge. Results. Whereas all participants promoted autonomy, parents were more likely to sacrifice autonomy to conform to gender stereotypic expectations than were nonparental adults and to use social-conventional reasoning to justify their evaluations. Parents were more likely than nonparental adults to promote boys' autonomy than girls' autonomy in the absence of stereotypic expectations but were less likely to do so in gender inconsistent contexts. Conclusions. Korean parents and nonparental adults differ in their decisions about children's engagement in gender related peer activities. In contrast to nonparental adults, parents used multiple forms of social reasoning when evaluating children's autonomy in the context of gender expectations. These findings shed light on the complex decision-making that parents engage in when granting children autonomy and promoting social development.