Rima Wilkes

When do we learn to trust in others? One group of scholars believe that we inherit trust from our parents and within the cultural environment in which we grew up. Another group suggest that we update our trust in response to contemporary social experiences and contexts. Taking time seriously, in this dissertation I adopt a life course approach and consider whether trust travels across place and over time. Across place, I consider how the experience of growing up in a high trust place and then migrating to a low trust place affects migrants’ trust and vice versa. Trust is lower in the South compared to other U.S. regions and in Canada trust is lower in Quebec compared to other provinces. I focus on internal migration in the U.S. between the South and non-South and in Canada between Quebec and the rest of Canada. My analyses of the U.S. General Social Survey (1972-2016) and the Canadian General Social Survey (2013 & 2014) show that migration to a different trust environment as an adult has little impact on people’s trust. Over time, I consider intergenerational transmission of trust among Chinese adolescents aged 10-15. I adopt a dyadic approach that differentiates two same sex (mother-daughter and father-son) and two cross-sex (mother-son and father-daughter) dyads and use this approach to investigate whether the transmission pattern varies across the four parent-child dyads. Analysing the Chinese Family Panel Studies (2010-2014), I find that that whereas sons adopt trust from both mothers and fathers, daughters only adopt trust from mothers. The transmission is greater between same-sex generational dyads than between cross-sex pairs. In line with previous studies that show mothers and fathers play differential roles in socializing their sons and daughters, the finding of varying transmission patterns suggests that parental socialization is one underlying process in trust learning. Taken together, the overall results illustrate that we learn to trust primarily when we are young from our early life socialization and within the social environment where we grew up. This learned trust persists into adulthood.

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Demonstrating and defending one’s masculinity is an integral part of the adolescent male experience. Adolescent men earn their masculinity by engaging in performances of masculinity, which include concealing emotions, aggression, and athleticism. While men who give convincing performances of masculinity earn status and power, those who are unable to are victimized and ostracized. In this dissertation, I investigate the influence of masculinity on adolescent men’s lives through an analysis of the experiences of adolescents who participated in the National Adolescent Health study (ADD Health). My principle aim is to examine how performances of masculinity relate to important aspects of adolescents’ lives. I examine the relationship between men’s performances of masculinity and their sexual identity. Many scholars posit that heterosexuals are more masculine than non-heterosexuals. I argue that these scholars fail to take into account that men’s use of homophobia to police masculinity biases people to erroneously perceive non-heterosexuals as less masculine than heterosexuals. The analysis of the ADD Health data confirms my argument; there is no difference between heterosexual and non-heterosexual men’s masculinity. I also explore how adolescents’ performances of masculinity and sexual identity affect their relationships with peers, life satisfaction, and risk-taking. I examine these life experiences because they strongly influence adolescents’ development. The analyses indicate that concealing emotions does not strongly relate to adolescents’ life experiences. Athleticism, however, leads to better peer relationships and greater life satisfaction, while aggression has a deleterious effect on peer relationships and life satisfaction as well as increases risk-taking. Sexual identity has almost no influence on life experiences. These findings have implications for future research. First, adolescent men’s performances of masculinity entail several different sets of behaviours that each uniquely influences life experiences. Consequently, researchers need to consider masculinity as a multidimensional construct. Second, there is no evidence that non-heterosexuals are less masculine than heterosexuals. Scholars exploring sexuality and masculinity must take into account how assumptions about sexuality and masculinity might be impacting their research. Third, performances of masculinity effect several aspects of adolescent men’s lives. Future research must focus on masculinity, and not just biological sex, when attempting to understand men’s experiences.

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