A 1990 study of 101 Iranian-descent high school students and their families resident in Santa Clara County , California showed that parents had high expectations of their offspring, and in most cases, the young people were meeting those expectations. While parents generally said that their expectations were much the same whether the adolescent was male or female, interviews with the parents and separate interviews with 32 of the adolescents revealed several ways in which expectations appeared to be different for the young women. Some differences in the behavior of male and female adolescents were also found when the interview data and the school records of the 61 males and 40 females in the study were compared.

These parents expected their adolescents, whether male or female, to study diligently, achieve high grades, and prepare themselves for higher education and professional careers. The grades and standardized test scores of these students showed that the young women were performing slightly better, on average, than their male counterparts. Furthermore, all the adolescents in this sample who were doing very poorly in school were male. These gender differences in performance are congruent with those generally reported for U.S. populations, both immigrant and non-immigrant.

The vast majority of the parents interviewed did not expect to return to Iran , and they recognized that their children needed to be able to adapt to U.S. society and culture in order to achieve their high academic and professional goals. Nevertheless, most the parents hoped their children would avoid adopting at least some American traits and would retain some Iranian traits. While the differences were small, a slightly higher proportion of the parents of females expressed concern that their adolescent might adopt too many American traits, and a slightly higher proportion of the female adolescents interviewed (as compared to the male) saw themselves as primarily Iranian (rather than Iranian-American or primarily American).

The expectations of parents of females differed the most from those of parents of males with respect to peer relations and especially relations with the opposite sex. Although many parents said that the standards and expectations in this area too should be the same for male and female adolescents, interview data suggested that parents monitored and restricted the social activities of the young women more than they did those of the young men. Other studies of Iranian immigrants have also reported a double standard with respect to supervision of adolescents, especially with respect to dating and contact with members of the opposite sex.

Parents' greater concern about their daughters' social activities may be related to the somewhat greater concern expressed by some parents of daughters that their child not adopt too many American cultural traits, and retain more of the good traits of Iranian cultures (among which they tended to count chastity and adherence to traditional family values). This could also be related to the young women's somewhat higher academic performance; fewer social activities may mean more time to study, and parents' greater restrictiveness may generate more positive attitudes about school. Maintenance of somewhat stronger ties with the ethnic culture has also been shown in some studies to be related to higher academic achievement. All the findings reported here, however, must be considered suggestive rather than definitive, since the sample was small, the gender differences subtle, and possible confounding variables not controlled.

Acknowledgements: This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant # BNS -8920612, and carried out with the assistance of Ms. Nahid Azad, Marriage and Family Counselor. Thanks are due to the many Iranian parents, adolescents, and community members who participated in the study, and to the educational personnel who generously cooperated with the research.