Cross-Cultural Research

Participants in this study were 190 children in three age groups (ages 9-11, 12-14, and 15-16) from three school groups of different socioeconomic status (SES) (low, middle, high) who wrote responses to the question, "How would you describe yourself to yourself?" Content analyses were conducted to identify references to others in children's self-descriptions. Both function and person identity of references to others were coded. References to others were most frequent for children from low SES, and mention of others overall became more generic and depersonalized with increasing age. Girls mentioned qualities of their relationships with others more than boys did. Results indicate that self-construals vary considerably within culture as well as by social class, age, and gender.

Sixty-nine dyads consisting of an adolescent (age 15 or 16) and his or her parent living in the Polish-speaking region of the Czech Republic completed the adolescent or short version of the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Galambos, Petersen, Richards, & Gitelson, 1985; Spence, Helmreich, & Stapp, 1973). The attitudes of parents and their adolescent children were significantly correlated, and the younger generation expressed less traditional attitudes than did their parents. In addition, mothers and adolescent girls held more egalitarian (less traditional) beliefs than did their male counterparts. These results suggest that attitudes toward women's roles may be becoming less traditional in the Czech Republic as in other parts of the world and that even in a rapidly changing society, parents and their adolescent children share beliefs about appropriate gender roles.

Adolescents (246, ages 12 through 15 years) attending four Singaporean secondary schools from three categories (nonselective, moderately selective, and highly selective) completed the Attitudes Toward Women Scale for Adolescents (AWSA), rated the importance of 10 characteristics of the ideal woman and man, and drew the ideal person in an activity. Less traditional attitudes toward women's roles were found among girls than among boys, and among students attending highly selective schools compared to those at tending a nonselective school. Ratings of the importance of qualities of the ideal person also varied by school category and by gender. Differences by school category remained significant after covarying out indicators of socioeconomic status and primary language spoken at home. The school setting may provide a context in which gender ideologies and values of adolescents develop.

Self-esteem, self-descriptions, and self-portraits are studied among 561 adolescents (ages 12 through 16) attending schools in Norway. The participants included 199 adolescent children of immigrants and refugees to Norway who came from 29 different countries, with the largest percentage coming from Pakistan and Vietnam. Contrary to expectations, immigrant adolescent girls had, overall, more positive perceptions of self than did Norwegian girls. Immigrant girls endorsed the item, "I like most things about myself," from the American Association of University Women Survey (1990) more