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Gender Differences in the Granting of Behavioural Autonomy to Adolescents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2015

Douglas Farnill*
Affiliation:
Victoria College
*
Psychology Department, Rusden Campus, Victoria College, 662 Blackburn Road, Clayton, Vic. 3168
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Abstract

A recent article in this Journal, Hudson et al. (1986) published age norms for adolescent autonomy. The reported norms were the same for boys and girls. In our research, reported in the present article, we found that the gender of the child is a significant variable in opinions about when adolescents ought be permitted autonomy. We suggest that null findings about gender effects may be due to the inadvertent evocation of an ideology of sex equality, masking the effects of gender. Except for the gender differences, our results strongly support the previously published norms and add to the fund of information available.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society 1987

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References

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