by Randall M. Jones , Denise E. Taylor , Andrew J. Dick , Archana Singh , Jerry L. Cook
Bandura (1986) contends that environmental events, personal characteristics, and behavior influence each other bidirectionally. Behavior is regulated by personal and environmental characteristics, environmental events are regulated by personal characteristics and behavior, and personal characteristics are influenced by environmental events and behavior. When environmental constraints are weak, personal characteristics exert greater influence on behavioral outcomes and when environmental constraints are strong, environmental factors tend to be more pertinent to behavior than personal factors. The relative impact and importance of each of these factors fluctuates over time and across situations and activities.
Bandura (1986) describes three types of environments. Imposed Environments are those that individuals experience whether they choose to or not (e.g., school). Personal characteristics exert little influence on the Imposed Environment. Selected Environments are those that we choose to experience (e.g., peer group) and thus, personal characteristics are highly influential in this domain. Finally, Constructed Environments are those that we create (e.g., contents of locker at school) and thus, are highly influenced by personal characteristics. The selected and constructed environments that we frequent are marked by our personal characteristics and behavior and likewise, these environments affect the reciprocal interplay between our personal characteristics and behavior.
There are similarities between the environmental component of Bandura's social cognitive theory and Scarr and McCartney's (1983) description of niche-selection and niche-building. Scarr and McCartney, though, emphasize developmental shifts in niche-building activity where initially in the developmental sequence, niche-building activities are mostly passive; participation in niche-building and niche-selection tends to become more active with development. For example, infants and most young children have limited input regarding the design of their environment and the specific items that are in their room. For infants and children, niche-building behavior is likely to be more passive than active. Many older children and adolescents, however, participate in the design of their bedrooms, thereby taking a more active role in niche-building.
Passive niche-building has been alluded to in studies of gender role development. Researchers have observed that parents tend to place vehicles, machines, and sports equipment in their male child's bedrooms, and dolls, doll accessories, and floral furnishings in their female child's rooms (Pomerlean, Bolduc, Malcuit, & Cossette, 1990). Likewise, Rheingold and Cook (1975) observed, among their sample of children age six and under, that none of the girls' rooms contained masculine type toys (e.g., vehicles, buses, front-end loaders) and none of the boys' rooms contained "doll houses" (p. 462). Rheingold and Cook concluded that gender differences in the type of toys located in infant and young children's rooms were largely a function of parental provision. These findings provide evidence of passive niche-building on the part of young children.
According to Scarr and McCartney (1983), age, and particularly the emergence of adolescence, promotes a shift from passive to active niche-building and selection. They attribute this shift to the adolescent's increased capacity to choose which environments to attend to and to learn from, including opportunities outside the immediate family context. Other factors that contribute to this shift include an emerging identity, increasing access to more and varied opportunity structures, and the growing importance of peer and media influence (Ibid).
Research on Personal Living Space (PLS) provides numerous examples of active niche-building that illustrate how personal characteristics influence the constructed environment. A PLS is "a room nestling within a larger residential setting while affording primary territory for a designated individual" (Gosling, Craik, Martin, & Pryor, 2005, p. 52). According to Gosling et al., a PLS contains an individual's personal possessions and "affords privacy, refuge, security, continuity, a medium for personalization and self-representation, and a venue for regulated social interactions" (Gosling et al., p. 52). Examples of PLSs include a private office, a small cubicle within a larger work space, a bedroom, a private office, a den; for an adolescent the PLS might include a private vehicle, a locker at school, a bedroom.
Vinsel, Brown, Altman, and Foss (1980) examined the walls over beds in university dormitory rooms and found that the wall space in females' rooms were more likely than that of males' rooms to contain personal relationship items while the walls in the males' rooms were more likely to contain sports items. Likewise, Gosling et al. (2005) examined the PLSs of college students and recent graduates and found that "female PLSs were characterized by decor depicting family and friends, had more flowers and plants but had less decor depicting cars, and fewer (females than males) had integrated stereos, personal stereos, and items of athletic equipment" (pp. 76-78). Female PLSs were also more likely than male PLSs to contain dolls, stuffed animals, beauty products, beauty equipment, mirrors, fashion magazines, and pictures of friends and family.
The importance of niche-building preference and activity resides in the purported relationship between environment and behavior (Bandura, 1986; Gosling, Ko, Mannarelli, & Morris, 2002). The PLS aspect of any environment, including an adolescent's bedroom, "can serve as a window into the attitudes, behaviors, life histories, identities, and personalities of the residents" (Gosling et al, 2005, p. 52). Items contained within the PLS provide a behavioral record of values, attitudes, and interests. Bedroom design preference and activity may serve as one outlet for understanding how adolescents both influence and are influenced by their environments.
The adolescent bedroom provides a unique context in which to examine gender differences in adolescent environments, and in particular, niche-building and the constructed environment. The purpose of this study was to examine niche-building preference and activity in the context of adolescent bedrooms.
METHOD
Sample
A two-phase process was used to recruit participants for this study. Initially, an informed consent form and a brief questionnaire were given to all eighth and ninth graders enrolled in a center school in northern Utah (N = 972). About half of these students (N = 447) returned parental consent forms along with their completed questionnaires (45.9% response rate). Responses to the brief questionnaire (four questions) were used to identify students who lived with both biological parents in the same house, and who had their own bedroom. Students who met both criteria (N = 285) were then invited to participate in the second phase of the study. Of the students who did not meet the criteria, 42.6% did not live with both biological parents in the same house, 45.7% did not have a bedroom of their own, and 11.7% did not meet either criterion.
A total of 285 students: 151 girls and 134 boys; 123 8th graders and 162 9th graders) were invited to participate in the second phase of the study. Of these, a majority completed and returned their surveys (N = 234:129 girls and 105 boys; 103 8th graders and 131 9th graders). Therefore, the overall participation rate among students who were invited to participate in the second phase of the study was 82.1%; 85.4% for girls, and 78.4% for boys. By grade, participation rates were 83.7% for grade 8 and 80.9% for grade 9.
Participant age ranged from 13.08 to 15.83 (M = 14.25 years); their homes contained 2 to 15 bedrooms (M = 4.90); 30.3% had changed the location of their bedrooms in the past year, and the mean number of hours per week spent awake and asleep in the bedrooms was 13.55 and 56.34 hours, respectively. Girls spent an average of 16.36 hours awake in their bedrooms, while for boys, the average was 10.04 hours per week, t(178) = 3.43; p< .001). There were no gender differences in the number of hours per week spent asleep, t(192) = .16; p >.05).
Measurement
Participants completed a questionnaire that included 13 questions about sources of influence for bedroom design decisions, 11 questions about adolescent bedroom design activity, 31 questions about communication with parents about bedroom design, 13 demographic and general information questions, and the Adolescent Bedroom Design Checklist (ABDC). The ABDC provides a mechanism for adolescents to indicate items that they would like to have in their bedrooms, and to describe current bedroom content.
The sources of influence section consists of thirteen questions related to adolescent sources of influence on bedroom design. The overall theme for this section is: "How often do the following people and things influence how you furnish/arrange/decorate your bedroom?" Some examples include: "Your mother," "Your friends," "media (e.g., TV, movies, music, newspaper or magazine ads)," "religion," and "activities outside of class (e.g., sports, Boy or Girl Scouts, music lessons)." Participants indicated their perceived level of influence on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from Never (1) to Always (6). Construct validity was evident in moderate and positive correlations between grandparents with mother, r = .20, grandparents with father, r = .21, and teens (not brothers or sisters) two or more years older with each of the following items: friends (r = .45), girlfriend/boyfriend (r = .33), media (r = .27), popular culture (other people's bedroom designs) (r = .34), and activities outside of class (r = .19).
Eleven questions assessed adolescent bedroom design activity. Sample questions include the following: "How often do you ask your father for money so that you can purchase things for your bedroom?" "How often do you ask your mother for money so that you can purchase things for your bedroom?" "How often do you use your own money allowance, money you've earned, gift money (e.g.,) to purchase things for your bedroom?" and "How often do you make things specifically for your bedroom?" The activity measure produced a Cronbach's alpha of .85. Correlations between items were mostly strong and positive. For example, a comparison of "seeking furniture/large items in your home for your bedroom" with "seeking decorations/small items in your home for your bedroom" yielded r = .52.
The ABDC (available from the authors), a multi-category checklist of bedroom design items, provides a mechanism for participants to design a bedroom of his or her choice. Development of the instrument occurred over a six-month period. The original list of items was compiled from personal observation (the bedrooms of friends' and relatives' adolescent children) department store ads, personal shopping trips, and related literature (Altman, Nelson, & Lett, 1972; Csikzentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981; Ladd, 1972; Salinger, 1995; Thomas, Gibson, & Adekunle, 1996).
Several adolescents participated in a pilot test of the entire questionnaire. Questions that were confusing (n = 7) were modified to increase clarity. The primary change as a result of the pilot test, however, involved reorganizing sections of the questionnaire. For example, questions concerning physical development (not relevant to this article) were moved from the front to the back of the questionnaire. The time necessary to complete the questionnaire (approximately 60 minutes) was documented during the pilot test.
The final version of the ABDC includes a comprehensive list of bedroom items with side-by-side spaces where participants check one of four response options: "Have in my bedroom and satisfied with it." "Have in my bedroom, but would like more or to replace with a different one," "Don't have but would like to have in my bedroom," and "Don't have and don't want to have in my bedroom." Categories include: Furniture (13 items such as matching bed, dresser, nightstand, bookcase, study desk, and chairs), Electronics (13 items such as alarm clock, CD player, telephone). Remodeling (13 items such as plenty of closet space, secure lock, outdoor balcony or patio attached to bedroom), Wall and Ceiling (11 items such as animals, floral, athletic), Border of wallpaper (10 items identical to the Wall and Ceiling items), Bedspread (11 items such as animals, floral, athletic), Window Coverings (5 items such as mini-blinds, curtain or drapes that match the bedspread), Flooring (8 items such as linoleum, tile, wood), and Decorations (55 items such as pictures of siblings, pictures of parents, posters of nature or science, stuffed animals).
Procedures
Approval for this study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects at Utah State University, the school district, and the participating 8/9 grade center. Following selection of students for the second phase of the study, questionnaires and directions for completion were distributed by teachers to the invited students. Written instructions and pre-labeled tickets for a lottery type drawing (name and grade) were included with each of questionnaire packets. Students were asked to complete their questionnaires within a week at which time a school-wide announcement was made to remind participants to complete their surveys and return them the next day. Participants (students who completed and returned their questionnaires) were entered in a drawing for one of four $100 gift certificates; one per gender-grade combination (viz., 8th grade girls, 8th grade boys, 9th grade girls, and 9th grade boys). As with the pilot test, the time necessary to complete the questionnaire was reported to be approximately 60 minutes.
RESULTS
Is Gender related to the bedroom design preferences of adolescents?
Each of the nine sections of the Adolescent Bedroom Design Checklist (namely: Furniture, Electronics, Remodeling, Wallpaper, Wallpaper Border, Bedspread, Window Coverings, Flooring, and Decorations) was analyzed separately using discriminant analyses where Gender was employed as the criterion variable, and items from each section of the ABDC were entered as discriminating variables. Any of the following three responses "Have in my bedroom and satisfied with it," "Have in my bedroom, but would like more or to replace with a different one," and "Don't have but would like to have in my bedroom" received a coded value of one, whereas a response of "Don't have and don't want to have in my bedroom" received a coded value of zero. Hence, the percentages in Tables 1 and 2 represent the presence and/or desire for each item. In each analysis, the discriminating variables were entered using a stepwise procedure.
As shown in Table 1, each of the nine ABDC sections yielded at least one item that differed between boy and girl bedrooms. Analysis of the Remodeling items yielded a single item and revealed that 84% of the girls either had or desired their "own bathroom attached to their bedroom," compared to 72% of the boys. Likewise, the only Window Covering item that was identified was "Curtains that match the bedspread," owned or desired by 71% of the girls and only 33% of the boys. The Furniture, Bedspread, and Flooring categories each yielded two discriminating items, and with the exception of the Flooring items, the gender differences were large. For example, 70% of the girls had or desired a "Make-up Table with mirror," whereas none of the boys had or desired this item.
Of the 27 items identified in these analyses, more boys than girls had or desired a Sofa and Chair (69% vs. 50%), Electronic games (80% vs. 53%), a Refrigerator (50% vs. 41%), Wallpaper and Wallpaper Borders that depict Athletic teams/equipment (38% vs. 24%; 35% vs. 23%), things for building or things that you have built (74% vs. 41%), posters of female movie stars or models (32% vs. 29%), Toys (52% vs. 38%), and Chess set/Board games (46% vs. 26%). Conversely, more girls than boys expressed ownership or desire for all of the remaining 18 items and in several instances, these comparisons are notable. In general, girls more so than boys, had or desired a coordinated bedroom decor that matched walls and bedspreads. Girls were at least twice as likely as boys to have or desire Floral Wallpaper (20% vs. 1%), a Floral Wallpaper Border (31% vs. 0%), Floral Bedspread (40% vs. 0%), Stars and Moons Wallpaper (37% vs. 16%), Stars and Moons Wallpaper Border (38% vs. 12%), and Stars and Moons Bedspread (31% vs. 1%). Large gender differences were also evident for Jewelry, Make-up and/or hair accessories, Candles and Candle holders, and Pictures of brothers and sisters.
Frequently distributions were generated to examine the "have" bedroom items (viz., "Have in my bedroom and satisfied," and "Have in my bedroom, but would like more or to replace with a different one") across gender. As shown in Table 2, nearly all of the boys (93.3%) and girls (96.9%) in this study had an alarm clock in their bedrooms. Over three-fourths of the boys and girls indicated that their rooms contained necessities such as lighting, a mattress, and comfortable temperature ("enough heating/air conditioning"). CD players, awards, certificates and trophies, and books were listed by most of the boys and girls as well.
The only two items that were listed by over 60% of the boys that were not listed by as many girls were athletic/sporting equipment and things for building or things that you have built, although a notable number of girls listed these items as well. Over half of the girls also listed athletic/sporting equipment, and one in three girls indicated that their bedrooms contained things for building or things that you have built. The girls' bedrooms, on the other hand, contained several items that were not listed by the boys. For example, girls (92.2%) were ten times as likely as the boys (9.5%) to list jewelry, nearly four times as likely (82.9%) to list pictures of their friends (23.8%), and three times as likely (66.7%) to list pictures of their brothers/sisters when compared to the boys (22.9%). A large gender difference was evident for Make-up and/or hair accessories where 72.9% of the girls indicated that their bedrooms contained these items compared to only 1.9% of the boys.
In general, the data presented in Table 2 indicate that girls' bedrooms contain a wider range of items than do boys' bedrooms. Much of this discrepancy is attributable to the fact that the girls' bedrooms contain a mixture of traditionally masculine and feminine items, whereas boys' bedrooms almost exclusively contain traditionally masculine items.
Influence and Activity
Pearson correlation coefficients were used to examine the relationship between different sources of influence and bedroom design activity. For these comparisons, the eleven activity questions were summed to create an indicator of bedroom design activity. Activity scores ranged from 11 (Never) to 55 (Almost always) and averaged 26.7 (Almost Never/Sometimes) indicating a moderate level of bedroom design activity for the group. Roughly 30% of the participants indicated a level of bedroom design activity that fell between "Most of the Time" and "Always"; girls (M = 26.81) were more active than boys (M = 23.26; t(223) = 3.33; p < .001).
The summed Activity score was correlated with each of the thirteen Source of Influence variables for the total sample, and separately for boys and girls. As shown in Table 3, for boys and girls combined, all but two of the correlations were positive and statistically significant; only Grandparents and Religion failed to yield statistically significant correlations between Influence and Activity. For the group, the largest correlations with Activity were evident for Media (r = .38), Friends (r = .35), Popular Culture (r = .34), Older teens (r = .32, and girlfriend/ boyfriend (r = .29). These correlation coefficients indicate that each of these sources share between 10 and 14% of the variability with bedroom design activity. The remaining sources of influence (namely, mother, father, younger siblings, older siblings, classes, and activities) produced statistically significant, albeit weak correlations with bedroom design activity.
When these relations were examined separately for boys, only four of the comparisons (viz., Older Siblings, Grandparents, Religion, and Classes) failed to yield statistically significant correlations. The strongest relations were observed for Girlfriend/Boyfriend (r = .43), Friends (r = .37), Media (r = .33), and Older Teens (r = .31). For boys, these sources of influence shared 10 to 18% of variability with bedroom design activity.
For girls, only four Sources of Influence produced statistically significant correlations with bedroom design activity. Friends (r = .28), Older teens (r = .29), Popular Culture (r = .34), and Media (r = .38) shared between 8 and 14% of the variability with bedroom design activity. Surprisingly, activity correlations with Mother, Grandparents, Religion, and Activities outside of the classroom were all less than r = .10, indicating little or no influence from these sources.
The level of bedroom design activity for boys was positively influenced by nine sources, whereas for girls only four sources of influence were related to bedroom design activity Religion, Grandparents, Older Siblings, and Classes exerted little influence on either boys or girls design activity, whereas Friends, Older Teens, Media, and Popular Culture yielded strong positive correlations with bedroom design activity for both boys and girls.
DISCUSSION
Social Cognitive theory contends that environments are influenced by personal characteristics and behavior (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). The gender differences in bedroom design preference and activity reported above provide empirical support for Bandura's contention; our gender comparisons indicate that adolescent boys and girls differ in bedroom design preference and activity. Compared to boys, the girls in our study had more items in a greater variety, and they had a mixture of both feminine and masculine items in their bedrooms. Similar gender differences have been observed in previous studies. Altman, Nelson, and Lett (1972) reported that male bedrooms, more frequently than female bedrooms, contain desks, tape and record players, radios, and TVs. Female bedrooms more often include vanity dressing tables, sofas, and sewing machines. The gender differences that we found in early adolescent bedrooms mirror gender differences found in the PLSs of late adolescents and young adults (Gosling et al., 2005; Vinsel et al., 1980).
Parents are more likely to purchase gender-traditional toys requested by their children (Eisenberg, Wolchik, Hernandez, & Pasternak, 1985). Among our early adolescents, however, friends, media, popular culture, older teens and boy/girl friends exerted greater influence on bedroom design activity than did mothers and/or fathers. In fact, parental influence, while statistically significant for boys, explained less than 5% of the variability in their bedroom design activity. For girls, parental influence in bedroom design activity was neither statistically significant nor notable, explaining less than 2% the variability in their bedroom design activity.
In our study, boys' bedrooms almost exclusively contained masculine items but the contents of the girls' bedrooms contained a mixture of masculine and feminine items. Specifically, the items found in a majority of the males' bedrooms (viz., athletic/sporting equipment, things for building or that you have built) were also commonly found in female bedrooms; whereas, a majority of the female bedrooms contained items that were rarely found in the male bedrooms (e.g., jewelry, make-up and/or hair accessories, pictures of your friends, pictures of your brothers and sisters). Fargot (1985) found that boys are much more likely to be criticized for participating in activities considered to be feminine than were girls for engaging in male-typical activities. Perhaps criticism extends beyond activity and includes possessions as well.
It is interesting that our analysis identified nine decorative items that explained 81% of the variability in gender. These items mostly consist of small, inexpensive artifacts that are easily procured (e.g., candles and candle holders, pictures, chess set/board games). Possession of decorative items such as these may be indicative of active niche-building among a group of young adolescents. On the other hand, the content categories that included items that are costly and more difficult to obtain such as remodeling, window coverings, and flooring accounted for far less variability across gender (2.3%, 14.0%, and 10.0%, respectively). Given limited resources for many adolescents, the shift from passive to active niche-building may be initiated with small, easily procured items.
LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Self report of any value, attitude, or behavior is always suspect, especially when relying upon a newly developed questionnaire (such as the ABCD) which has not been validated. The fact that the gender differences we found using self reports mirror the gender differences found in PLS studies using observational techniques (cf., Gosling et al., 2005) does alleviate some of the concern with the previously untested ABCD. Validity evidence for the ABCD could be bolstered by obtaining a representative sample of observational data to cross-validate self-reports. Likewise, the fact that the contents found in our adolescents' bedrooms resembled those of college students and recent graduate PLSs, and that our gender differences resembled gender differences found among older participants (e.g., Gosling et. al., 2005) attest to the ecological validity of our findings.
The results from this study complement previous findings showing that gender plays an important role in bedroom design preference and activity. While males prefer and obtain items that are traditionally masculine, the bedroom design preference and activity of females is less constrained by traditional gender boundaries. Our results also indicate that adolescents are generally active in constructing their environments and that society and opportunity play an important role in the creation of those environments. Future research is needed to investigate how desire for particular items evolves into procurement, and how both desire and procurement play out in adolescent bedroom design preference and activity. Likewise, additional research is needed to determine how and when (developmentally) children and adolescents become active participants in niche-building and selection.
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