Developmental Trajectories of Sex‐Typed Behavior in Boys and Girls: A Longitudinal General Population Study of Children Aged 2.5–8 Years

Abstract

The stability of sex-typed behavior from the preschool to the middle school years was examined. The Preschool Activities Inventory, a measure of within-sex variation in sex-typed behavior, was completed by the primary caregiver when the child was 2.5, 3.5, and 5 years, and a modified version, the Child Activities Inventory, was completed by the child at age 8. The investigation involved a general population sample of 2,726 boys and 2,775 girls. Sex-typed behavior increased through the preschool years, and those children who were the most sex typed at age 2.5 were still the most sex typed at age 5, with those children who showed the highest levels of sex-typed behavior during the preschool years continuing to do so at age 8.

Parenting and Child Development in Adoptive Families: Does Parental Sexual Orientation Matter?

“…Our results suggest that parental sexual orientation is not as influential in young children's gender development as previously thought (e.g., Baumrind, 1995). Rather than parental sexual orientation, biological influences and other gender-typed socialization influences are likely to be particularly important early in children's development (Golombok et al, 2008).…”

“…The population mean was 60 AE 10 for boys and 40 AE 10 for girls. Recently, gender role behavior of two-and-a-half year-old children was found to predict gender role behavior at age eight using the PSAI (Golombok et al, 2008). The overall sample means were 41.24 AE 11.05 for girl items and 62.15 AE 9.75 for boy items.…”

“…For example, a large body of research indicates that biological influences and prenatal hormones are related to children's gender role behavior and activities (e.g., Golombok, Rust, Zervoulis, Croudace, Golding, & Hines, 2008), over and above the influence of parenting. On the other hand, social cognitive theories suggest that gender development is the result of dynamic interactions between social experiences and complex cognitive processes.…”

The Role of Athletics in the Self-Esteem of Tomboys

“…Alternatively, tomboyism in childhood may have some stability and may be associated with similar gender stereotype deviance in young adulthood. Indeed, there is some evidence for moderately stable individual differences in gender typing, at least in childhood [51][52][53].…”

Socialisation de genre et construction des identités sexuées

“…Au cours de l'enfance et durant l'adolescence, garçons et filles déve-loppent des centres d'intérêts spécifiques concernant les activités de jeux, sportives, de loisirs et l'apparence physique (Ayral & Raibaud, 2014b ;Bacou, 2008 ;Cherney & London, 2006 ;Court, 2010aCourt, , 2010bDavisse & Louveau, 1998 ;Golombok, Rust, Zervoulis et al, 2008 ;Mardon, 2010 ;Monnot, 2009 ;Octobre, Détrez, Mercklé et al, 2010). Les activités sportives, la télévision et les jeux vidéo sont les domaines privilé-giés des garçons, alors que les filles passent le plus de temps à regarder la télévision (Cherney & London, 2006).…”