
ERIC Number: ED170068
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1979-Apr
Pages: 36
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Multidimensional Aspects of Young Children's Sex-Role Development.
Schau, Candace Garrett; Busch, Judith Wilde
This article reports a study in which a sample of 89 White and 34 Spanish-language heritage children from ages 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 from the lower- and middle-classes responded to two cognitive measures (classification skill and gender knowledge), three verbal sex-typing measures (occupations, toys, and peer behaviors), and a behavioral sex-typing measure (toy play). The results included the following: (1) Moderate sex-typing was found for sex attribution of occupations. However, girls believed that women should perform the female jobs for them while boys were neutral; boys believed that men should perform the male jobs for them while girls were neutral. With increasing age of children, the match between attribution and census reality increased. (2) Boys attributed neutral toys to males while girls attributed them to females. With age, female toys were attributed more to females. Children's interests in all the toys were high. Boys were more interested in male toys than girls were; there were no differences in interests for female or neutral toys. (3) Children with higher gender knowledge scores sex-typed the female peer behaviors more in the female direction. Overall, children view the female items as applying to both sexes and the male items to boys. (4) Girls played equally long with female, male, and neutral toys, while boys played longest with male toys and equally with female and neutral toys. Other results are discussed. (Author/BH)
Descriptors: Childhood Attitudes, Childhood Interests, Children, Cognitive Development, Cross Cultural Studies, Minority Group Children, Occupations, Play, Psychological Studies, Research, Sex Role, Sex Stereotypes, Social Class, Social Development, Social Differences, Spanish Speaking, Toys, Whites
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Office of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A
Note: A shorter version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (San Francisco, California, April 8-12, 1979)