A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Children's Drawings of Same-and Mixed-Sex Peer Interaction

Abstract

Children's art was studied as a function of (1) gender of child, (2) picture condition (drawings of same-sex versus mixed-sex dyads), and (3) child-rearing setting (U.S. town [N = 89] versus Israeli town [N = 132] versus Israeli kibbutz [N = 88]). Pictures were scored for theme or focus of activity (mastery versus social interaction) and for the nature of the interaction (cooperation, competition, aggression, power/ dominance). Boys drew more themes of aggression, competition, and dominance than did girls. U.S. boys portrayed more aggression than did Israeli town boys, and kibbutz children portrayed less competition and dominance than did Israeli town children. Of greatest interest, however, are cultural differences in the way mixed-sex dyads were portrayed relative to same-sex dyads. Whereas Israeli boys drew different themes in pictures of two boys than in pictures of a boy and a girl, they nonetheless depicted egalitarian relationships equally often in both pictures. In contrast, U.S. boys drew the same themes in pictures of two boys as in pictures of a boy and a girl, but they portrayed different power relations: Two boys playing together were depicted as equal in power, but boys were drawn as more powerful than girls in pictures of mixed-sex dyads. Similar, although less strong, results were found in the drawings of girls. The results are interpreted in terms of cultural practices and ideology with respect to sex typing.