Partner influences on sex-associated spoken language of children

Gender Differences in Preschool Children's Commentary on Self and Other

“…For the most part, the girls we studied appear to have used fairly gentle persuasion tactics rather than heavy-handed confrontation with boys, although some of their messages were quite blunt: "Thomas, that's my side," "You're not my friend," "Stop it, stop it, stop it." These results are more consistent with those of Leaper (1991), Ausch (1994), andMiller et al (1986) than those of Jacklin and Maccoby (1978), Haas (1981), and Leman et al (2005), suggesting that preschool girls can and do assert themselves in cross-gender interactions. However, the finding that girls speaking to boys talk differently than girls speaking to girls has mixed implications.…”

“…Similarly, Haas (1981) compared the speech of boys and girls ages 4, 8, and 12 years old in mixed-and same-gender dyads. Although boys and girls moved toward more gender-neutral speech topics in mixed-gender interactions compared with same-gender interactions, boys also attempted to dominate girls, issuing more direct requests and giving more information, and girls exhibited higher rates of verbal compliance when partnered with a boy.…”

Influence and Involvement in Children's Discourse: Age, Gender, and Partner Effects

“…These efforts have ranged from conventional one-time laboratory or semi-naturalistic studies (Haas, 1981;Miller et al, 1986;Mc-Closkey, 1987) to long-term interventions aimed at increasing mixed-gender interactions over time in schools (Bianchi & Bakeman, 1978Serbin, Tonick, & Sternglanz, 1977). Findings from the intervention studies show that sustained crossgender interactions can lead to reduced gender-typed attitudes and behaviors in both girls and boys.…”

“…For example, boys have been found to be less responsive to girls' polite influence attempts (Jacklin & Maccoby, 1978;Maccoby, 1990;Miller et al, 1986;Serbin et al, 1984). Perhaps as a consequence, it has been observed that girls will display domineering interactional strategies (e.g., threats or demands) with boys but generally are not inclined to use these strategies with other girls (Goodwin, 1980;Haas, 1981;McGIoskey, 1987;Miller et al, 1986;Sgan & Pickert, 1980). Thus, genderrelated differences in interaction may depend on partner gender as well as subject gender.…”