The present study examined the development of sex typing during middle childhood, using a sample of 558 children aged 5-12 years. The purpose of the study was to provide information about the developmental course and stability of various aspects of sex typing during this period and to examine the relative contributions of cognitive and environmental factors to sex-role development. Multiple measures of sex typing were obtained, including indices of personal preference, knowledge of stereotypes, and flexibility in the domains of activities, occupations, and traits. We also collected information about the child's cognitive maturity, exposure to sex-typed models at home, and socioeconomic status. Results supported the need for an integrative theory of sex-role development, incorporating factors emphasized by cognitive-developmental, schematic-processing, and social learning theories. Knowledge of stereotypes, flexibility, and sex-typed personal preferences all increased with age during middle childhood. There were also individual differences in sex typing that were stable over a 1-year period. Distinct "cognitive" and "affective" aspects of sex typing were identified using a principal components analysis. Cognitive elements (flexibility and knowledge of stereotypes) were largely a function of the child's cognitive maturity level, although social-environmental factors such as father's presence in the home also had some effect. Affective elements (sex-typed preferences for activities, occupations, and peers), on the other hand, were related more consistently to sex typing of the home environment. Children whose mothers frequently modeled "reversed" sex-role behaviors (i.e., traditionally "masculine" household and child-care tasks) were less sex typed in their own preferences. However, cognitive factors were also important, in that children who believed gender stereotypes to be flexible were less sex typed in their choices of activities, occupations, and peers. In sum, both cognitive maturation and socialization experiences contribute to the development of sex typing during middle childhood. Potential practical implications of these findings, as well as implications for stereotyping in other social domains such as race and ethnicity, are discussed.
Contextual and developmentalfacton that may result in same-sex pen preferetles may be observed among two-year-olds prior to the emergence ofgender segregation as a dominant pattern in their PlaYgroups. The Emergence of Gender Segregation in Toddler PlaygroupsLisa A. Serbin, Lora C. MollqJudith Gulko, Kimberly K. Powlishta, Karen A. ColburneGender segregation, the predominance of same-sex groupings, is a pervasive, readily observable characteristic of children's playgroups. Children show nonrandom pattern of gender association by age three or four, and the phenomenon seems to intensify gradually during early and middle childhood (Hartup. 1983;Lockheed and Klein. 1985; Maccoby and Jacklin, 1987). Over time, the consequences of gender segregation may be extensive. Boys and girls appear to learn and practice different social and cognitive skills within their respective playgroups, with resulting gender differences in patterns of social relations and in academic, recreational, and occupational interests and achievements.In this chapter, we present the findings from a naturalistic study of five groups of toddlers who had begun attending preschool a few months before the study started. Our purpose was to examine factors that might encourage gender segregation in groups where preferences for same-sex peers were not yet observable or only beginning to appear.
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