Gender-Related Ideals of Puerto Rican Adolescents: Gender and School Context

Young adolescents (N = 417; 12 through 16 years of age) attending public or private schools in Puerto Rico rated 40 characteristics of the ideal man or ideal woman and also drew the ideal person engaged in an activity. Principal component analysis revealed two conceptually coherent components. Girls, more than boys, endorsed the qualities loading on the first component, labeled Sociable Personality. Boys amending private schools who rated the ideal man perceived Sociable Personality to be less important than did other groups. Physically Attractive was rated as more important for the opposite-gender ideal than for the same-gender ideal. These findings revealed that the values of interpersonal respect and integrity, previously identified as traditional values in Puerto Rico, were present in adolescents' perceptions of the ideal person. The results also indicated that girls and boys may respond differently to conditions of cultural change and school context.