Resumen de Gender and Patterns of Concerned Responsiveness in Representations of the Mother–Daughter and Mother–Son Relationship

Ruth Butler, Rachel Shalit-Naggar

• Given that girls show more interpersonal concern than boys, it was predicted that more mother–daughter than mother–son dyads would develop a relationship of mutual concerned responsiveness (CR). Two hundred and twenty-six Israeli children (7–8 years old) and 91 mother–child pairs provided narratives of mother–child interactions. At high levels of socioeconomic status (SES), descriptions of child but not maternal concern differed by gender; therefore, more mother–daughter narratives described mutual CR and more mother–son narratives described a nonreciprocal pattern of maternal CR. In a low-SES sample, most mother–daughter narratives described mutual CR, but many mothers and sons described little concern by either partner. Results provided clear evidence of gender differences in mother–child reciprocity and confirmed the importance of examining gender influences in different social groups.