The Experience of Gender Role Conflict in School Shooters: a Qualitative Study
The Experience of Gender Role Conflict in School Shooters: A Qualitative Study Polly Marston, PhD University of Connecticut, 2019 Abstract School shootings are becoming familiar events in America. School children live in a world where they fear violence and practice active shooter drills even during kindergarten. With no signs of the violence abating, it is of critical importance for the public to understand why these attacks are occurring. The purpose of this study is to examine the writings of school shooters for the presence of masculine ideologies and gender role conflict. Using the qualitative directed content analysis methodology, gender role conflict theory, and a feminist theoretical perspective, the writings of seven school shooters were analyzed. Little research attention has been paid to the sex and gender roles of the shooters. School shooters are almost universally boys exhibiting what can be defined as gendered behavior. This study examined the patterns of gender role conflict in school shooters’ lives. The findings found the presence of masculine ideology and distorted gender role schemas, three of the four outlined patterns of gender role conflict, and gender role devaluations, restrictions, and violations in their writings. The results provided evidence that the shooters in the sample wrote about gender role conflict and the resulting stress it caused in their lives. The limitations of the study and implications are discussed. The Experience of Gender Role Conflict in School Shooters: A Qualitative Study Polly Hannah Marston B.S. University of Connecticut, 1994 M.S. Wheelock College, 1996 6th Year Certificate University of Connecticut, 2005 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Connecticut 2019 APPROVAL PAGE Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation The Experience of Gender Role Conflict in School Shooters: A Qualitative Study Presented by Polly Hannah Marston, M.S.
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