Parental divorce and attitudes to gender equality in Sweden

Objective: This analysis tests the association between parental divorce and adult children's gender role attitudes. Background: After parental divorce, mothers may increase gainful employment and fathers their time in housework. These new roles may influence children’s views on gender equality. Method: Data from two waves of the Swedish Young Adult Panel Study (YAPS), conducted in 1999 and 2003, based on a nationally representative sample of 2,520 respondents aged 22, 26, 30, and 34 years, are used for analyses. Childhood family type, i.e. intact family, single mother, single father, and mother and stepfather, are measured with retrospective questions. Attitudes towards gender equality are examined in the public sphere of work, the private sphere of the family, and a combined sphere measure. Results: Family type in childhood is only weakly associated with young adult gender role attitudes. One exception is young adults from single father families (versus intact family), who express more modern private sphere gender role attitudes. Moreover, growing up with a mother and stepfather is more positively associated with women’s than men's modern gender role attitudes. Conclusion: Parental family disruption per se adds little to our understanding of what shapes gender role attitudes in adulthood but results suggest interesting interaction effects between post-divorce family type, parent's gender, and child’s gender.