Changes in Responsiveness to Babies during Adolescence

Abstract

FELDMAN, S. SHIRLEY, and NASH, SHARON CHURNIN. Changes in Responsiveness to Babies during Adolescence. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 942-949. Interest in babies was assessed in 30 high school seniors (16-17 years old) and 32 college freshmen (18-19 years old) by means of measures which varied from passive perceptual responses to pictures, to more active-instrumental behavioral reactivity to an actual baby in the presence, and finally in the absence of an adult. Trait theory and sociobiology predict stable sex differences across adolescence, whereas role theory anticipates sex differences during early to mid-adolescence which phase out by late adolescence. In line with role theory, there was an absence of sex differences among college students in their responses to pictures of babies and to a live baby. It was the low level of interest exhibited by high school males (e.g., physical contact, touches baby, talks to infant, disinterest in baby) that accounted for the sex differences found among high school students and the age differences apparent among males. Findings were discussed in terms of role demands for males and females at different junctures of adolescence as a function of the development and consolidation of sex-role identity.