Effect of Clothing, Sex, and Sex Role Stereotypes on Behavioral Expectations of a Preschool Child

Abstract

An experimental design was used to investigate the effect of sex-typed clothing, sex of child, and sex-role stereotype of subject on impressions of a preschool child's competencies and likelihood of engaging in sex-typed behaviors. Sex type of clothing and sex of child were manipulated using four black-and white photographs. Subjects were 100 females enrolled in an introductory early childhood education course. Data were analyzed using analyses of variance and the Neuman-Keul's test. The preschool girl was rated as more socially competent than the preschool boy. None of the independent variables influenced ratings of nonsocial competencies. For impressions of likelihood of engaging in sex-typed behaviors, subjects indicated that a female child was more likely to engage in feminine sex-typed activities than a male child and that a male child was more likely to engage in masculine sex-typed activities than a female child.