Early Parental Presence and Self-Other Overlap: An Empirical Examination of Chodorow's Theory of the Reproduction of Mothering

Abstract

This study was inspired by Nancy Chodorow's (1978) Theory of the Reproduction of Mothering (TRM). The study empirically scrutinized Chodorow's hypothesis that male-dominant, father-absent societies in which women do most of the parenting for children of both sexes reproduce themselves by creating dissimilar atmospheres in which young girls and boys develop their gender identities. According to Chodorow, these disparate atmospheres make women view themselves in relationship to others and, in contrast, making men view themselves as separate from others. Ninety college students completed a battery of pen and paper measures that included, among other things, measures of self-other overlap and parental egalitarianism. Although TRM was not supported, parental egalitarianism correlated with increased perceptions of self-other overlap with both parents regardless of whether the subject was male or female. Further, parental egalitarianism was associated with decreased perceptions of self-other overlap with close others in males.