The role of language skills in perceived prosocialityin kindergarten boys and girls

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to clarify the role of language in perceived prosociality according to the gender of the child by using a sample of 209 French-speaking children (93 girls and 116 boys) attending kindergarten (M = 66.8 months, SD = 3.7). In keeping with many studies on this subject, our results showed significant gender differences with respect to the prosociality of kindergarten children as perceived by their teachers. In parallel with gender differences in prosociality, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the relation between language skills and assessments of prosociality by kindergarten teachers varies according to the gender of the child: language has an explanatory role in perceived prosociality for boys, but not for girls. Implications of these findings concerning the social role of sexes in education and avenues for future research are presented.