Abstract
Extensive evidence has documented the gender stereotypic content of children’s media, and media is recognized as an important socializing agent for young children. Yet, the precise impact of children’s media on the endorsement of gender-typed attitudes and behaviors has received less scholarly attention. We investigated the impact of stereotypic and counter-stereotypic peers pictured in children’s magazines on children’s gender flexibility around toy play and preferences, playmate choice, and social exclusion behavior (n = 82, age 4–7 years-old). British children were randomly assigned to view a picture of a peer-age boy and girl in a magazine playing with either a gender stereotypic or counter-stereotypic toy. In the stereotypic condition, the pictured girl was shown with a toy pony and the pictured boy was shown with a toy car; these toys were reversed in the counter-stereotypic condition. Results revealed significantly greater gender flexibility around toy play and playmate choices among children in the counter-stereotypic condition compared to the stereotypic condition, and boys in the stereotypic condition were more accepting of gender-based exclusion than were girls. However, there was no difference in children’s own toy preferences between the stereotypic and counter-stereotypic condition, with children preferring more gender-typed toys overall. Implications of the findings for media, education, and parenting practices are discussed, and the potential for counter-stereotypic media portrayals of toy play to shape the gender socialization of young children is explored.
Highlights
Extensive evidence has documented the gender stereotypic content of children’s media, and media is recognized as an important socializing agent for young children
We propose that portrayals of agematched peers who share an interest with readers through the magazine may serve as effective social models for the communication of gender-typed attitudes and behaviors in media aimed at young children, especially regarding gender-typed toy play
We focused on the impact of portrayals of children engaged in genderstereotypic or counter-stereotypic toy play in print magazines, depicted in the form of actual children playing with their toys and who were fellow readers of the magazine, that is, in a format made to resemble the content of a Reader’s Page that is often found in children’s magazines
Summary
Extensive evidence has documented the gender stereotypic content of children’s media, and media is recognized as an important socializing agent for young children. We investigated the impact of stereotypic and counter-stereotypic peers pictured in children’s magazines on children’s gender flexibility around toy play and preferences, playmate choice, and social exclusion behavior (n = 82, age 4–7 years-old). When examining the role of gender development in Halloween costume choices among infants and preschoolers, Dinella (2017) found strong gendered trends in these costumes, with princess costumes being most popular for girls and superhero costumes for boys and with age being positively related to the gender-typing of children’s costumes in this young sample Together, these findings reflect a strengthening in gender-typed behavior among pre-school children, as well as the emergence of gender flexibility among older children as they approach 7 years of age, as predicted by cognitive developmental theories of gender development. The entrenchment of gender stereotypes and prejudice at such an early and formative stage of development has implications for children’s identities, aspirations, and achievements (Cimpian et al 2012) as well as the perpetration of gender-related bullying, peer victimization, and social exclusion (Killen and Stangor 2001)
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