title: Mexican-American Adolescents' Gender-Typed Characteristics: The Role of Sibling and Friend Characteristics.
abstract: This study examined the role of sibling and friend characteristics in Mexican-American youth's gender-typed characteristics (i.e., attitudes, interests, and leisure activities) in early versus middle adolescence using a sibling design. Mexican-American 7th graders (M = 12.51 years; SD = .58) and their older siblings (M = 15.48 years; SD = 1.57) from 246 families participated in home interviews and a series of seven nightly phone calls. Results revealed that younger/early adolescent siblings reported more traditional gender role attitudes than their older/middle adolescent siblings and older brothers were more traditional in their attitudes than older sisters. When comparing siblings' gender-typed interests and leisure activities, boys reported more masculine orientations than girls and girls reported more feminine orientations than boys. Older brothers' gender-typed characteristics were associated with the amount of time spent with and gender characteristics of their friendship group, but for younger brothers, sibling characteristics were associated with their gender-typed characteristics. In contrast, both sibling and friendship characteristics were significantly associated with older and younger sisters' gender-typed characteristics. The discussion addressed the different correlates of older and younger sisters' and brothers' gender-typed characteristics.
authors.affiliation: School of Family and Consumer Sciences, Texas State University-San Marcos, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX, 78666, USA, Norma.Perez-Brena@txstate.edu.
authors.forename: Norma J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Perez-Brena
authors.forename: Lorey A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Wheeler
authors.forename: Kimberly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Updegraff
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Schaefer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000523:psychology*; D010379:Peer Group; D012801:Sibling Relations / Q000208:ethnology*; D035781:Siblings / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States