“Momma Knows Best”: The Relationships Between Mothers’ and Fathers’ Gender Essentialism and Their Involvement With Their Adolescents

Gender essentialism refers to the belief that men and women are biologically better fitted for different societal roles, including parental roles. Past research has shown that parents’ gender essentialist beliefs are associated with the division of parental responsibilities. This study examined the relationships between gender essentialist beliefs and parents’ engagement in positive (responsiveness and autonomy support) and negative (overprotection and controlling parenting) forms of involvement, within a sample of 1260 parents of adolescents. Using actor-partner interdependence modeling, we found that for both mothers and fathers, essentialist beliefs were related to more controlling and overprotective parenting. Among fathers, essentialist beliefs were also associated with less responsiveness and autonomy support. Parents’ essentialist beliefs can relate to diverse forms of parental involvement which may differently impact adolescents. Therefore, it appears important to consider the quality of parental involvement, in addition to its quantity, when studying the impact of gender beliefs on family lives.