Urban and rural grandmothers (n = 20) in Botswana participated in focus groups to learn their expectations for the acquisition of skills by preschool children. Their expectations for self-care, traditional politeness, and participation in household chores were dramatically earlier than developmental timetables reported for Western middle-class…

Proposes a framework that considers differences in the type of work contributions to family (amount, style, person specificity, and consensus), the impact of various circumstances (age, gender, competence, preference, family position of individual, ethnic background, custom, parents' needs, or availability of children), and the feelings people…

Examined how family socialization processes varied with season and time of week for young adolescents and their parents. Found that girls were more likely than boys to care for siblings during the summer. Adolescents' housework participation fanned out on weekends. Weekdays were less structured by social institutions for mothers who worked…

Levels of involvement in household work were compared for sibling pairs in 172 families. In families where mothers had high work demands, daughters performed significantly more work than sons, and younger sisters did more work than older brothers. The gap in siblings' gender role attitudes was significantly greater in families wherein girls…