The purpose of this study was to comparatively analyze students' gender role identity and gender egalitarianism among boys and girls to find out its relationship with their school life adjustment. This study provides us with basic data that can help y...
The purpose of this study was to comparatively analyze students' gender role identity and gender egalitarianism among boys and girls to find out its relationship with their school life adjustment. This study provides us with basic data that can help young adolescents establish sound gender-role identity in their school life and adjust their school life appropriately.
The subjects in this study were 416 6th graders(211 boys and 205 girls)from 7 public elementary schools in Seoul. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS(Statistical Package for the Social Science) WIN 13.0 program.
The major findings of the study were as follows :
First, there was a gender difference in the types of gender-role identity between boys and girls. Boys have four types of gender-role identity. The undifferentiated type was the most common, followed by androgyny type, masculinity type and femininity type. In girls, the androgyny type was most frequent, there were roughly the same number of girls with the femininity and undifferentiated types. Finally, some girls had the masculinity type. The distribution of boys' masculinity type and girls' femininity was almost the same. But the ratio of boys' femininity to girls' masculinity was three to one in this survey, and also most girls were androgyny type. Most boys were undifferentiated type. Gender egalitarianism was analyzed by following boys and girls' home life , school life, work life and social life. Girls' gender egalitarianism was stronger than boys'. Boys' and girl's school life adjustment was different. Boys' and girls' school-work adjustment and feelings about school was a little different, but girls' social adjustment was greater than boys'. For example, girls have many friendships with classmates and obey rules.
Second, there is a relationship between gender-role identity and school life adjustment among boys and girls. Their masculinity is related to study-work, and femininity is related to social adjustment. Masculinity and femininity affects everybody differently.
Third, there was a relationship between gender egalitarianism and school life adjustment among boys and girls. Boys' gender egalitarianism was very highly related to school adjustment in social life. Boys and girls' gender egalitarianism had a weak relationship with home life. When boys and girls' gender egalitarianism rated highest, their school life adjustment was strong. The impact of gender egalitarianism in this situation was stronger for girls than boys.
Fourth, gender egalitarianism was compared among different gender- role identity type of boys and girls. In work life for boys who had masculinity type, gender egalitarianism was higher than for those with undifferentiated type. Girls' masculinity type and androgyny types' gender egalitarianism was stronger than other types.
Fifth, school life adjustment was compared among different gender-role identity types of boys and girls. If they had gender-role identity their school work adjustment and social adjustment was strong. They felt satisfied in school. School life adjustment in boys was stronger for those with androgyny types, followed by an equal amount for those of the femininity and masculinity types. Finally, school life adjustment was the weakest for the undifferentiated type. For girls, school life adjustment had the same impact for androgyny, femininity and masculinity types. Like boys, school life adjustment had the weakest effect for the undifferentiated type. Although they had the same gender-role identity, school life adjustment was different for girls and boys. I discovered boys and girls are really different, and their adjustment attitude is different. Not only does single-sex education improve academic achievement, it also decreases behavioral problems so school adjustment becomes less of a concern.