Opposite-Sex Ideal in the U.S.A. and Mexico as Perceived by Young Adolescents
- 1 June 1990
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
- Vol. 21 (2) , 180-199
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022190212003
Abstract
In this cross-cultural study, 188 9th-grade girls and boys from the U.S.A. and Mexico ranked 10 characteristics of the opposite sex ideal person, and drew pictures of the ideal person engaged in an activity. These young adolescents showed significant agreement about the characteristics of the ideal man and woman; however, there were important gender and cross-cultural differences. Boys emphasized physical characteristics more so than girls. As compared to U.S.A. adolescents, Mexican adolescents more highly valued liking children, helping others, high intelligence, and inner qualities such as goodness and honesty in the opposite sex ideal. U.S.A. adolescents gave higher rankings to having a lot of money and being fun, popular, good looking, and sexy; they drew the ideal person as more physically mature, and involved in a less sex-stereotyped activity than did Mexicans.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- The ideal man or woman as described by young adolescents in Iceland and the United StatesSex Roles, 1987
- The Self-Monitoring Scale: A Factorial Comparison among Mexicans, Mexican Americans and Anglo AmericansHispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 1986
- Positive and Negative Factors in the Measurement of Sex Roles: Findings from a Mexican SampleHispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 1986
- Sex differences in factors of romantic attractionSex Roles, 1984
- Annotated bibliography of materials for adding an international dimension to undergraduate courses in developmental and social psychology.American Psychologist, 1984
- The Intensification of Gender-Related Role Expectations during Early AdolescencePublished by Springer Nature ,1983
- Perceptual-cognitive and personality development of Mexican and Anglo-American children as measured by human figure drawings.Developmental Psychology, 1974
- The Prospects for a Women's Liberation Movement in Latin AmericaJournal of Marriage and Family, 1973
- Conceptions of sex role: Some cross-cultural and longitudinal perspectives.American Psychologist, 1973
- Cooperation and competition of Mexican, Mexican-American, and Anglo-American children of two ages under four instructional sets.Developmental Psychology, 1971