From Ally McBeal to Sabado Gigante: Contributions of Television Viewing to the Gender Role Attitudes of Latino Adolescents

Although previous findings indicate that frequent television viewing is associated with holding more stereotypical attitudes about gender, no studies have examined this connection among Latino youth, who are frequent viewers of both English- and Spanish-language programming. The present study attempted to rectify this situation by examining connections between exposure to this content, viewer involvement, and the gender role beliefs of Latino adolescents. Surveying 186 Latino high school students, we found that girls who watched more television and who perceived it to be realistic exhibited more traditional gender role attitudes. Similar contributions were seen from the viewing of specific genres of English- and Spanish-language programming, underscoring the importance of investigating associations by language, sex, and genre.