Yan Hope Xu, Chen Feinian
Louisiana State University.
Johns Hopkins University.
Soc Sci Res. 2025 Mar;127. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2024.103132. Epub 2024 Dec 31.
Abundant studies have documented the positive impact of mothers' empowerment on children's health and education in the Global South, but little is known about how maternal empowerment shapes children's gender beliefs. Using data from the India Human Development Survey, this study examines the relationship between mothers' empowerment and adolescent children's gender beliefs in India. Recognizing the multidimensionality of women's empowerment, we conduct latent class analysis to identify a six-class empowerment typology based on mothers' education, employment, decision-making power at home, mobility outside the home, and memberships in women's organizations. The results reveal unevenness in different dimensions of mothers' empowerment. Maternal empowerment's association with egalitarian gender beliefs is salient among adolescent girls, but not boys. Adolescent girls with mothers labeled as in our empowerment typology hold the most egalitarian gender beliefs, whereas and mothers' daughters are the least egalitarian. By illustrating the complex interplay between multiple dimensions of maternal empowerment and children's gender beliefs in India, this study advances the empirical and theoretical understanding of women's empowerment and the effects of mothers' behaviors on children's gender beliefs.
大量研究记录了在全球南方地区母亲赋权对儿童健康和教育的积极影响，但对于母亲赋权如何塑造儿童的性别观念却知之甚少。本研究利用印度人类发展调查的数据，考察了印度母亲赋权与青少年儿童性别观念之间的关系。认识到妇女赋权的多维度性，我们进行了潜在类别分析，以根据母亲的教育程度、就业情况、家庭决策权、外出活动能力以及在妇女组织中的成员身份，确定一种六类赋权类型。结果显示，母亲赋权的不同维度存在不均衡性。母亲赋权与平等主义性别观念之间的关联在青少年女孩中较为显著，但在男孩中则不然。在我们的赋权类型中，被归类为[具体类别1]的母亲的女儿持有最平等主义的性别观念，而被归类为[具体类别2]和[具体类别3]的母亲的女儿则最缺乏平等主义观念。通过阐明印度母亲赋权的多个维度与儿童性别观念之间的复杂相互作用，本研究推进了对妇女赋权以及母亲行为对儿童性别观念影响的实证和理论理解。
