Self-Perceived Gender Typicality, Gender-Typed Attributes, and Gender Stereotype Endorsement in Elementary-School-Aged Children

This study examined relations among self-perceived gender typicality, gender-typed attributes, and gender stereotype endorsement with a sample of elementary-school-aged children (N?=?100, ages 6–12) from the Midwestern United States. Children who perceived themselves as more gender-typical were more interested in same-gender-typed activities and occupations and less interested in other-gender-typed activities and occupations than children who perceived themselves as less gender-typical. Gender typicality was linked to gender stereotype endorsement, as predicted based on Liben and Bigler’s (2002) dual-pathway model of gender development, with children who perceived themselves as less gender-typical having more egalitarian (less stereotyped) attitudes than children who perceived themselves as more gender-typical. The observed relations between gender-typed attributes and self-perceived gender typicality and between self-perceived gender typicality and gender stereotype endorsement did not differ across gender or age. These findings indicate that even young elementary-school-aged children use their knowledge of cultural gender roles to make subjective judgments regarding the self, and, conversely, that views of the self may influence personal endorsement of cultural gender stereotypes. Although the majority of extant research has focused on negative outcomes associated with low self-perceived gender typicality (e.g., low self-esteem), this research indicates that positive outcomes (e.g., flexible gender role attitudes) may also be associated with low self-perceived gender typicality.     

儿童性别恒常性发展

性别恒常性发展是儿童性别认知发展的关键问题,该文介绍了这一领域研究的最新进展。儿童获得性别恒常性是一个渐进的过程,在6、7岁时已完全获得,儿童的认知发展水平、文化背景、社会经济地位、教育影响性别恒常性发展,性别恒常性与性别类型活动存在相关,但关系复杂。最后,作者对该领域的研究趋向做出了展望。     

Antecedents of toddler gender segregation: Cognitive consonance,gender-typed toy preferences and behavioral compatibility

This study examined 3 possible antecedents of toddler gender segregation: segregating children were hypothesized to exhibit more gender awareness, gender-typed toy preferences, and gender-typed compatible play styles than their non-segregating peers. Fifty-seven, primarily White, toddlers (28 males, 29 females) with a mean age of 35 months were observed in free play to determine their degree of same-gender peer preferences and gender-typed toy preferences. Teacher ratings of the children's play styles, and the children's knowledge of gender identity, and gender role awareness were also examined. Forty-two (21% of males and 62% of females) children played with same-gender peers at above chance levels during free play, with more girls segregating than boys. There were no differences between gender segregating and non-segregating children regarding gender-typed toy preferences or gender awareness. There were differences in teachers' ratings such that the gender segregating girls were seen as the most socially sensitive, and gender segregating boys were seen as more active and disruptive then the other children. These findings are interpreted as providing support for the compatible play style explanation of gender segregation, but the gender awareness and gender-typed toy preference hypotheses were not supported.This research was partially supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Counsel of Canada and the Fonds Pour la Formation de Chercheures et L'aide a la Recherche of the Ministry of Education of Quebec.The authors would like to thank the staff, students and parents of the Rainbow Preschool and the St. Andrews Preschool for their cooperation, and also, Judi Gulko, Wendy Seifert, Lisa Bedard, Sharon McKeown, Ina Grey, Lorrie Sippola, and Ivan Fernandez for their help in collecting and coding the data. Kim Powlishta also provided helpful insights regarding statistical analyses. Also, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for helpful comments.     

That's a boy's toy: gender-typed knowledge in toddlers as a function of mother's marital status

A child who is highly gender schematic readily uses gender when processing new information. In the current study, we examined whether and how family structure predicts a child's level of gender-typed knowledge (as assessed by a gender-stereotype sorting task) once the category of gender is in place (as assessed by a gender-labeling task). It was predicted that children from more "traditional" family structures (married mothers) would have more gender-typed knowledge compared to children from less traditional families (unmarried mothers). Moreover, we explored if this relationship would be related to, at least in part, the greater frequency of androgynous behaviors (i.e., both masculine and feminine household activities) an unmarried mother performs. Twenty-eight children (age 2 to 3) were tested at local childcare centers. The mother of each child reported her marital status as well as how often she engaged in stereotypically masculine and feminine behaviors. As expected, mothers' marital status was associated with children's level of gender-typed knowledge, such that children with unmarried mothers had less gender-typed knowledge, in part due to the unmarried mother's greater frequency of androgynous behaviors. Implications for children's acquisition of gender-related stereotypes and the possible benefit of having mothers model both masculine and feminine behaviors are discussed.     

The Effect of Pink/Blue Clothing on Implicit and Explicit Gender‐Related Self‐Cognition and Attitudes Among Men

In many cultures worldwide, one stereotype emerges: Pink is associated with girls and blue is associated with boys. Based on the enclothed cognition theory, the present study examined the effects of men's pink clothing on gender‐related self‐cognition and sex‐role attitudes. Male Japanese participants wore either a pink or blue coat and completed a gender stereotype Implicit Association Test, a self‐rating scale, and gender attitude scales (a measure of egalitarian sex‐role attitude and the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory). Results showed that among participants with low self‐esteem, the implicit self–feminine association was stronger in the pink condition than in the blue condition. On the other hand, participants with high self‐esteem explicitly associated themselves more with power‐oriented traits compared with interpersonal‐oriented traits when they wore a pink coat compared with those who wore a blue coat. Additionally, participants in the pink condition expressed stronger egalitarian sex‐role attitudes and weaker benevolent sexism than those in the blue condition. We propose that men's pink clothing is a means of diminishing gender stereotypes and traditional sex‐role attitudes.     

Gender and computers. II. The interactive effects of knowledge and constancy on gender-stereotyped attitudes

A number of studies have failed to find that gender constancy (understanding that one's gender is permanent) predicts gender-typed attitudes and behavior. This study (run with a predominantly white sample) tests the hypothesis that gender constant children are motivated to master gender roles, but that how well they do so depends on their knowledge of gender stereotypes. We predicted that attitudes toward computer use (a stereotypically male activity) would be less positive only for 5–9-year-old gender constant girls who also had rich gender stereotypes. Predictions were confirmed, especially for girls whose constancy had recently increased. These data thus suggest that the clearest picture of gender role development emerges when both the unique and interactive effects of gender constancy and gender schema development are assessed. They also indicate that gender differences in computer attitudes can develop through self-socialization processes.This research was supported in part by research Grant No. R37 MH37215 and Research Scientist Development Award No. 00484 from the National Institute of Mental Health to the third author. The first two authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the James S. McDonnell Foundation. All authors would also like to thank Tom Alfieri, Faith Greulich, and Lisa Cyphers for their help at various stages of this project.     

Are parents' gender schemas related to their children's gender-related cognitions? A meta-analysis

Meta-analyses were conducted of 43 articles (with 48 different samples) investigating the relationship between parents' gender schemas and their offspring's gender-related cognitions. The parents' offspring ranged in age from infancy to early adulthood. Offspring measures included gender self-concept, gender attitudes toward others, gender-related interests, and occupational attitudes. Overall, a small but meaningful effect size (r = .16) indicated a significant and positive correlation between parent gender schemas and offspring measures. Specifically, parents with more traditional gender schemas were more likely than parents with more nontraditional schemas to have offspring with gender-typed cognitions about themselves or others. In addition, the magnitudes of observed effect sizes were influenced by particular moderator variables, including type of parent gender schema (gender self-concept vs. gender attitudes toward others), type of offspring gender-related cognitions, parent gender, offspring gender, offspring age, and publication characteristics. The results are cautiously interpreted as suggesting a possible influence of parents on the development of their children's gender-related thinking.     

Defining traits differently for self and others

Identical trait labels may be understood differently in thinking about self and in thinking about others. Specifically, when making self-judgments, individuals define traits primarily in terms of unobservable manifestations, e.g., how one feels. However, in making other-judgments, particularly in making judgments about relatively unfamiliar others, individuals define traits primarily in terms of observable manifestations, e.g., how one looks. This prediction was tested in three experiments (Exp. 1: N = 96, Polish undergraduates including 19 men, 77 women; Exp. 2: N = 96, U.S. undergraduates including 18 men, 78 women; Exp. 3: N = 74, Polish undergraduates including 18 men, 56 women). Participants were asked to perform a generic trait judgment task followed by a specific trait judgment task in which the same traits were preceded by a qualifier "feels" or "looks". As expected, in the case of self-judgments, generic judgments predicted feels judgments better than looks judgments. This pattern did not occur for judgments of others and was reversed for judgments about others who were relatively unfamiliar.     

Associations Between Gender Segregation and Gender Identity in College Students

We investigated associations between gender segregation and the two traditions of gender identity identified by Wood and Eagly (2015): gender-typed personality traits and gender reference group identity. We also investigated whether one of these traditions was associated with gender segregation to a greater extent than the other. Our sample consisted of 73 male (and 93 female undergraduate students aged 18–24 attending a university in the northeastern United States of America. In support of our hypotheses we found that male and female college students reported a greater proportion of same-gender than cross-gender friends and that gender segregation was negatively associated with femininity for male college students and positively associated with gender reference group identity for male and female college students. In addition, as hypothesized, we found that gender reference group identity was associated with gender segregation to a greater extent than gender-typed personality traits. That gender segregation is associated with gender reference group identity to a greater extent than gender-typed personality traits supports a multifaceted model of gender, and it highlights the importance of considering different traditions of gender identity in gender research (Mehta 2015; Wood and Eagly 2015).     

Teaching Children to Confront Peers’ Sexist Remarks: Implications for Theories of Gender Development and Educational Practice

Elementary-school children (81 boys, 72 girls, aged 5–10 years) in the Southwest United States were taught to challenge peers’ sexist remarks to (a) improve school climate for gender nontraditional children, (b) decrease children’s gender-typed attitudes, and (c) test hypotheses linking gender identity and peer-directed gender role behaviors. Children either practiced using retorts to peers’ sexist remarks (practice condition) or heard stories about others’ retorts (narrative condition). At pretest, children rarely challenged peers’ sexist remarks. At posttest, children’s challenges were significantly more common in the practice than narrative condition. At the 6-month posttest, data showed intervention effects had become more widespread. Behavioral changes led to decreases in gender-typing of others among girls but not boys.     

Youths’ attributions for power-related gender differences: nature,nurture, or God?

This study examined beliefs about power-related gender traits among 73 early adolescents in middle school (M age=12.5), 84 late adolescents in high school (M age=16.1), and 111 young adults in college (M age=20.9). Males believed that men had more dominant traits than female participants, and females thought that women had more submissive traits than male participants. Older participants perceived more gender differentiation for these traits than younger participants. Youths believed most strongly in social explanations for differences, followed by biological and religious explanations, although there were age and sex differences in responses. Findings suggest that religious and biological attributions decrease between early adolescence and adulthood for both males and females, but that social attributions increase for females only. Religious attributions were linked to traditional attitudes towards women, social attributions were linked to egalitarian attitudes, while biological attributions were linked to traditional attitudes for males only.     

The effects of books and gender constancy development on kindergarten children's sex-role attitudes

The effects of symbolic models and level of gender understanding on children's sex-role attitudes was investigated. Kindergarten boys and girls heard and discussed books whose characters depicted either traditional or nontraditional sex-role behaviors. Attitudes toward males and females were measured before and after the picture book treatment. When the study began, children were screened for gender understanding so that half were able to make other-gender constancy judgments, and half were not able to make other-gender constancy judgments. Prior to the treatment, boys and children who had attained gender constancy were slightly negative toward males and neutral toward females, whereas girls and children who had not attained gender constancy were very negative toward males and very positive toward females. Exposure to traditional books had the effect of enhancing attitudes toward males and decreasing attitudes toward females. Exposure to nontraditional books had the opposite effect of decreasing attitudes toward males and enhancing attitudes toward females. The effects of the picture book treatment on attitudes toward females were more pronounced for children who had attained other-gender constancy. Implications for social learning and cognitive-developmental theories of sex-role development are discussed.     

How Do Lay People Weight Information About Instrumentality, Expressiveness, and Gender-Typed Hobbies When Judging Masculinity–Femininity in Themselves, Best Friends, and Strangers?

To study how people weight information when judging their own and others’ masculinity–femininity (M–F), I asked 170 male and 205 female participants to rate themselves and their best friends on M–F, instrumentality, expressiveness, and gender-typed hobby preferences. Also, each participant judged the M–F of eight fictitious women (or men) described as possessing low or high instrumentality, low or high expressiveness, and hobbies typical of men or women. Regression analyses showed that gender-typed hobby preferences predicted M–F ratings of self and friends more strongly than instrumentality or expressiveness did. Similarly, analyses of participants’ judgments of fictitious people showed that participants weighted gender-typed hobbies more strongly than instrumentality and expressiveness when judging targets’ M–F. All results converged to show that lay people’s judgments of M–F are based more on information about gender-typed interests than on information about instrumentality or expressiveness.     

学前儿童性别恒常性的发展

采用改进的访谈方法,考察了3、4、5、6岁儿童的性别恒常性的发展。结果表明：3、4岁儿童已获得性别认同的能力,4、5岁儿童逐步获得性别稳定性的能力,5、6岁是性别一致性发展的快速期,大多数的6岁被试儿童已获得性别恒常性。研究还发现,在提示条件下,各年龄获得性别恒常性的被试人数大大增加;儿童对自己的性别恒常性的认知发展早于对他人,但这一差异仅表现在3岁儿童身上     

Impact of an individualist vs. collectivist context on the social valorization of internal explanations

The theory of the norm of internality emphasizes the role of Western individualism in the normativity of internal explanations. The present study examines the link between the social value accorded to targets expressing internal vs. external explanations and individualist vs. collectivist contexts. Sixty-three male and female French management sciences students evaluated two targets (internal vs. external) in a simulated recruitment situation. The job vacancy was partially manipulated to create individualist vs. collectivist contexts. Participants were asked to state whether or not they would recruit the targets and to describe the targets on traits relating to social utility (market value) and social desirability (likeability). As expected, the results showed that the effect of the targets' internality on recruitment judgments and perceived social utility was stronger in the individualist context than in the collectivist context. However, the analysis also revealed that the participant's gender moderated the impact of the context on the evaluation of the targets. The results showed that the context strongly affected the men's judgments, whereas it had no effect on the women's judgments.     

Compensation for Inconsistencies: The Effects of Stereotype Strength on Expectations of Applicants’ Job Success and Satisfaction

This research was designed to examine how exposure to information about a man described in terms of gender-typed, cross gender-typed, or androgynous characteristics affected judgments about his potential satisfaction and suitability for male- and female-dominated occupations. In addition, we examined how this exposure affected judgments about another man who was applying for the same job. Drawing from prior theory and research on the schema maintenance through compensation model (e.g., Seta & Seta, 1993; Seta, Seta, & McElroy, 2003), it was predicted and found that participants with strong gender stereotypes develop compensatory expectancies. Specifically, in comparison to control conditions, participants exposed to information about the first applicant that was inconsistent with a typical man’s behavior expected the second applicant to be especially “macho” and to be unsuitable in and dissatisfied with traditionally, female-dominant occupations. Implications for employment interviews were discussed.     

Gender constancy: A methodological and theoretical analysis

Two widely used tests of gender constancy, one verbal and one perceptual, were given to 26 4-to-6-year-old children. Children were classified at different levels of gender constancy, depending on which test was used. These discrepant results were not accounted for by the differences in the way the tests presented (verbally or visually), nor by the tests' differing definitions of gender constancy. The majority of the children answered gender constancy questions as though they were referring to a “pretend,” as opposed to a “real,” situation; such responses decreased scores of gender constancy on both tests. The theoretical and methodological implications of children spontaneously adopting a pretend mode of responding are discussed.