Perceptions of gender differences in playful behaviour among kindergarten children

Abstract

SUMMARY There is a distinction between girls and boys regarding the manifestation of sex-appropriate behaviour from an early age. There is evidence that boys and girls play and are reared differently, and also are reinforced differently to manifest behaviours regarded as playful. The purpose of this study was to identify if there were differences between the two genders concerning the factors of playful behaviour among Greek kindergarten children. The sample included 607 children (303 girls and 304 boys) from 16 Greek kindergarten centres, with a mean age of 5,4 ± 0,6 years. Children's Playfulness Scale (Barnett, 1990) was used by the teachers to evaluate the five factors of playfulness: physical spontaneity, social spontaneity, cognitive spontaneity, manifest joy and sense of humour. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that the multivariate effect of gender was statistically significant only for physical spontaneity (F 5,607=37.12, p<.05), manifest joy (F 5,607=19.02, p<0.5) and sense of human (F 5,607=6.61, p<.05). Boys were rated higher than girls on all of the above measures. Those findings must be taken into consideration in order to organise an effective learning environment and to choose the most appropriate way to modify and implement play activities.