Applied Research: Update

So far I have given the survey to seven kids and one parents. Three of the children were 6, two were 4 and one was 10. Almost all of them drew a boy and girl in a generic manner, the girl with long hair and the boy with short hair. Many of the older kids responded to questions 8 and 9 how I expected, "I wouldn't play with a truck/doll because that is a boy/girl toy", it surprised me that the younger kids were more open to playing with toys that did not traditionally abide to their gender. I wish I made more of my questions like that because that is where I am finding responses closer to what I was expecting. However, some of answers concerning favorites seem to be gender neutral things (such as a favorite show being spongebob). I am having trouble surveying the kids parents because they are not as available to me so I think my findings are not going to result in if parents impose gender roles on their children but something more along the lines of gender roles are not considered until a certain age. I am excited to continue my research, a little disappointed that it is not going where I originally intended but I will be happy if I am able to conclude something from the survey.

Applied Research: Finalized Plan

The purpose of my survey is to see if children confide in gender roles that are influenced by their parents. Below is the survey I plan on asking participants:

`Hi, my name is Morgan Raspanti! I am a senior at Immaculate Heart Academy and would like to invite you to take a minute and be a part of my research for my sociology class! For this class I have been writing a blog about childhood socialization, as we reach the second half of the quarter the blogging is being directed towards applied research. Firstly I am writing this to ask for permission to ask your child some questions (attached on back) and to ask you a shorter series of similar questions. All help is appreciated! Thank you! (:

Please sign on the dotted line below:

 x……..………………………………………..

Parent Survey:

1.       Age:

2.   Gender: Male/Female

3.     What is your child’s favorite

-        Color?

-        Toy?

-        Game?

-        Show?

Children Survey:

4.   Age:

5.   Gender: Male/Female

6.   What is your favorite

-        Color?

-        Toy?

-        Game?

-        Show?

7.    What games do you play with your parents?

8.   What do you want to be when you grow up?

9.   Would you play with dolls? Why or why not?

10.            Would you play with trucks? Why or why not?

11.    Who is your best friend?      

12.            Can you draw a boy and a girl?

Gender Wage Gap Response

First Article
Second Article

            Both articles (linked above) suggest that the wage gap could be due to employee behavior. They suggest women tend to negotiate less aggressively, hence being less inclined to ask for a raise. Both also suggest that on average women work fewer hours than men. In addition to being more likely to seek part-time work, women are also more likely to have gaps in their employment history and to enter lower-paying fields. The one article particularly speaking about doctors found that the female doctors tended to be in lower-paying specialties, have fewer publications, hold fewer administrative leadership positions.

            The first article I read suggested that the pay gap is exaggerated, and not actually present, and is attributable to the choices made by women concerning the amount of time and energy they devote to a career because there is no gender gap in wages among men and women with similar family roles. While the other one suggested that the gap is still very much present and that when they ran the numbers taking into account differences in specialties, the average salary for women still feel behind that of their male colleagues.           I find it interesting that the first article was written by a man and the second was written by a woman. The first article excuses the proposed wage gap, as it does not harm men, while the second expresses concerns toward the causes and continuation of the wage gap.          I think to improve the wage gap it is important for women to be ambitious. All of the facts that suggest a wage gap is not real but merely a result of a woman’s lifestyle choice, can also support woman deviating the wage gap. If more were to make choices concerning their occupation similar to the choices males are making that are increasing their wages, woman will be able to close the gap.  

Applied Research Detailed Plan

Here is an excerpt from my sociology text book, Sociology: A down to earth approach page 73, that I thought was a good explanation for the purpose of my research...

 Socialization into Gender: Learning the Gender Map:

"For a child, society is unexplored territory. A major signpost on society's map is gender, the attitudes and behaviors that are expected of us because we are a male or female. In learning the gender map (called gender socialization), we are nudged into different lanes in life- into contrasting attitudes and behaviors. We take direction so well that as adults, most of us act, think and even feel according to this gender map, our culture's guidelines to what is appropriate for our sex."...

So basically, society teaches us what is considered feminine and masculine and children who have had the least life experience still seem to conform to these norms... how does this affect their growth? To define how much children I plan on asking them and their parents a series of questions, without predisposing them to the true purpose of my research...

• Who?
• Participants?
• Children
• I predict participants will be between the ages of 3 and 11 
• Male and Female
• A CCD class I teach, the childcare center I work at, and my nieces friends 
• Adults 
• I predict the participants to range from ages 25-45
• I know there is a big gap between these ages but I am probably going to ask the parents of the children I interview and I assume they will range somewhere between these ages 
• What? 
• Materials 
• Survey Question Examples for kids 
• What is your favorite color?
• What toys do you play with/ games?
• Who are your friends? 
• I expect their answers to fulfill their gender roles
• Survey Question Examples for parents
• What do you and your kid do together? 
• Do you pick out your child's clothes/toys?
• I expect the parents to have answers that show the influence they have had on their children abiding to gender roles 

• When? 
• Where? 
• Location- most likely... Church, Gym, and my house
• Why? 
• To evaluate how gender roles influence children
• How?
• I am going to survey male and female children as well as male and female adults to compare the outcomes of their responses and evaluate the part that gender roles play in an average lifestyle

Applied Research

After blogging for the first academic quarter I am now approaching my second quarter "applied research". Which is pretty exciting because now I can apply everything I have concluded through my posts to the real world. There are a lot of different types of research methods but I was thinking I would mostly value survey research and/or naturalistic observation. Between everything that I have written on my blog I think a big focus was the part that gender roles play in childhood socialization. So I plan on surveying the children I know, boys and girls with age varying, about how gender roles effect them. Of course they do not really know what gender roles are so I plan on being discrete about the object of my study. It will be interesting to see if they respond to the questions how I predicted.

*( Note: This applied research plan is incomplete but its just a starting ground!)

Eighth Post: Choice

(I typed this like two weeks ago and thought I posted it but unfortunately either it didn't go through or I forgot....)

This is my last blog before I start collecting applied research, than I plan on directing my posts towards that. Under the broad topic of childhood socialization each of my blogs managed to differ so I would like to use this post to summarize what I have learned from my observations, but I also have a good idea for a post sooo I am just going to do both!

In my previous post I mentioned how girls should start being educated about bullying at an earlier age. Its an unfortunate truth but in today's society the youth needs to be exposed to the potential harms of the world to avoid danger. It is a pleasant feeling to assume every person has good intentions, but as people age and are frequently exposed to the danger's of the world they realize it is naive to believe just that. Children on the other hand do not have a developed world view and are vulnerable to the attacks of a predator because of their innocent optimism.
It is unfortunate that people cannot feel completely secure in their own neighborhoods. When my oldest siblings, who are now well into adulthood, were in elementary school on Halloween they were allowed to walk up and down the block alone, their biggest precaution was to check their candy before they ate it. When I was in elementary school an adult would trick-or-treat with us but there were still very upbeat, communal,and safe vibes in connotation with trick-or-treating. But in present day when my niece goes trick-or-treating, in the same neighborhood my siblings and I did, she has to be overcautious to protect her personal security.. I have noticed now that Halloween celebrations mostly take place at school, trunk-or-treats, or even local mall's. The traditional emphasis on trick-or-treating throughout your neighborhood seems to have less emphasis. What I am observing could be explained by Edward Sutherland's Differential Association Theory, it suggests that from the different groups we associate with we learn to deviate from or conform to society's norms. So, since my niece Alyssa associates with her generation she denies the tradition my siblings and I were accustomed to and is more inclined to participate in the church's "trunk-or-treat" or go look at a haunted house. However, Alyssa does not feel like she is violating what we considered normal because (due to the profound threat of strangers kids trick-or-treat less) majority of her peers are doing the same as she.

One more thing.... A quick synopsis of what I have gathered so far.

 My posts have had so much variation that I thought it would be difficult to sum them all up in one sentence. I was trying to skim over them and see what really relates and than I realized that the concrete definition of Childhood Socialization that I included in my second post really does the job..."The term social refers to a relationship or interaction between two or more people, who by definition respond to each other and influence each other’s behavior. Socialization is an important process in child development. Stated simply, it is the process whereby individuals, especially children, become functioning members of a particular group and take on the values, behaviors, and beliefs of the group’s other members. Although the process begins shortly after birth and continues into adulthood, the age of early childhood is a crucial period of socialization."... It is almost funny that after this month of posting what I have concluded is what I started with. But to be honest in my second post I had less awareness about what this definition was really saying. This portion of the blogging project has shown me the vital importance of Childhood Socialization, how children are socialized does not just mold the basis for their personal development but it molds the basis for the development of our future society. 

Seventh Post: Choice

Hey there bloggers! Yesterday my niece Alyssa turned ten. Double digits were a HUGE deal to her, and she's been talking about her perspective plans for a sleepover party for months. She also wanted to go to disney world and medieval times, those plans did not fall through but we did host a sleepover party at our house! So, two weekends ago, from 6pm-11am there were nine fourth grade girls running around my house. The sleepover went pretty smoothly, the girls had a scavenger hunt, decorated pumpkins, played games, and it seemed like everyone was having fun, until it was way past their regular bed time.

          From the sleepover I noticed a couple of things that I found interesting and notable in the socialization of Alyssa and her friends. Firstly I noticed off the bat that there was one girl, we'll call her Rachel, that the girls seemed to tease. Rachel sort of subjected herself to it. For example she's been to my house many times and asked Alyssa how many dogs we have...she tried to justify this by saying that she didn't mean real dogs, but that didn't really make sense and the girls all giggled. Also during the scavenger hunt when the rules were first read she just headed out in front of her friends, and during another clue she waited behind to change into slippers while the girls all ran in front. So, even though Rachel was subjected to the teasing I also think she sort of separated herself from the girls.

          Later when it was past midnight and the girls were all beyond cranky but still determined stay up late, fighting their tiredness caused some aggression. The girls continuously walking up and down stairs got both my sister and I out of bed so we separately went to talk to them. Alyssa reported back to us that Rachel was being mean to everyone. I tried to explain to her that it sounds a lot more practical for 8 girls to be mean to one than for 1 girl to be mean to 8. It was more than likely that the girls were teasing Rachel and when she tried to fire back they immediately accused her of being the mean one and responded as the victims.As I tried to explain this Alyssa stuck to her response, suggesting that Rachel was making everyone cry and that her sleepover party was a disaster. Than when my sister went downstairs to check on the girls that didn't retreat to my living room she said Rachel was balling and another girl was trying to console her. After all this "drama" wound down the overtired group went to sleep and in the morning they were all best friends again. I had over heard Rachel pick a fight about potato chips but for the most part everything from the night before seemed to be forgotten. Although, yesterday at dinner Alyssa told me Rachel said Alyssa's birthday party wasn't fun. I told her it was probably because everyone was mean to her and yet again Alyssa told me Rachel is mean to all of them. 

         Ever since I was in middle school the problem of girl bullying was often stressed to me and my classmates. So I am aware it is a problem especially in adolescent girls but I did not realize it on set so early. In every scenario I have seen for anti bullying, the bully is intentionally trying to harass her victim, but Alyssa and her friends seem truly unaware that when Rachel is seemingly mean to them it is a response to them being mean to her. Alyssa even said if she is mean to one of the girls they are all mad/upset. This is simple conformity, when a group bigger than two people agree with an idea that seems appealing or "right" more people are likely to follow their opinions, in Alyssa's case causing a shared hatred for one of their other "BFF'S". This common dislike isn't an elementary school thing, it occurs in my high school, at my sisters work, and even between my Mom's bunco friends. But the difference is we are all aware of it and know how to properly handle being grouped with someone you don't really like.Alyssa and her friends have been grouped with the same classmates for five years, not really being given the option to make new friends or leave old friends because there are only so many other girls in the grade. Conditioned to be friends with everyone throughout elementary school I think the girls are more likely to retreat to teasing, disrespecting someones feelings, and overall bullying, while still having play dates and engaging in activities (Alyssa and Rachel carpool for cheer leading practice and use to take gymnastic classes together) with the person that is subjected to this treatment. 

        Traditionally education on girl bullying starting in middle school made sense, but now with children hitting puberty at an earlier age than they did in the past I am sure their hormones subject them to being more emotional, dramatic, and well "catty" at an earlier age. While their emotions are maturing their mindset is still elementary so it doesn't surprise me that Alyssa did not realize how Rachel is the victim in this situation.  But, does this mean girls should be educated on girl bullying earlier than middle school? Would they be mature enough to understand the consequences of their actions? Or would the efforts be ineffective?