Gender Constancy Research Articles

Gender constancy and the "cost" of sex-typed behavior: A test of the conflict hypothesis.

Ninety-five children between 5- and 10-years-old watched televised boys and girls who differentially endorsed toys of varying attractiveness. The study was designed to test the hypothesis that behavioral expression of gender norms that arouse conflict would be delayed relative to norms that are conflict-free. Predictions were supported for boys. Gender-constant boys spent more time playing with an uninteresting sex-typed toy than did preconstant boys. When the sex-typed toy was relatively interesting, preconstant boys played with it as much as gender constant boys. Toy play among girls was related to toy attractiveness and the girl's agreement with televised stereotypes

Gender constancy and the "cost" of sex-typed behavior: A test of the conflict hypothesis.

Gender constancy and the "cost" of sex-typed behavior: A test of the conflict hypothesis.

The role of gender identity and gender constancy in sex-differentiated development

Kohlberg's 1966 challenge to the dominant theories concerning gender development influences current research in the field.

Differential Influences of Gender Schemata and Gender Constancy on Children's Information Processing and Behavior

A cross-sectional sample of 60 children at three age levels (kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade) was used to test hypotheses derived from both gender schema theory (e.g., Martin & Halverson, 1981) and gender constancy theory (e.g., Kohlberg, 1966). Supporting the prediction that the effects of developing gender schemata are likely to be revealed most clearly on information processing measures, the proportion of gender-role consistent (versus inconsistent) pictures that children recalled on a picture memory task increased across age level. Supporting the hypothesis that the attainment of gender constancy would be revealed most clearly on measures reflecting motivational aspects of gender, children who had reached constancy made more distortions of gender-role inconsistent television commercials to be gender-role consistent, and showed a greater preference for same-sex toys in comparison to nonconstant children. Results are discussed in terms of differential influences of gender schemata and gende...

A naturalistic investigation of gender constancy in three‐ to four‐year‐old children

A naturalistic interview study of gender constancy was carried out on a sample of 30 children, aged 3 to 4 years, asking questions about stability of gender through time and across situational transformations for the child her/himself and for known others. No perceptual transformations or props were used, and the children were asked supplementary questions in order to establish whether transformations were ‘real’ or ‘pretend’. Most of the children showed an understanding of gender stability across time, but there was a substantially lower number of correct responses for situational transformations. However, all the incorrect responses were found to be due to ‘pretend’ responding. It is concluded that gender constancy is established at an earlier age than Kohlberg (1966) suggested, and that it is important to distinguish between real and pretend transformations.

The Effect of Proper Name and Appearance Changes on Children's Reasoning about Gender Constancy

Two studies were conducted to assess how changes in sex-typed names and in appearance affect children's performance on the gender constancy task. In the first study, pre-schoolers and second-graders participated in a gender constancy task in which proper names, pronouns, or sex-neutral terms were used to refer to a picture of a child whose appearance was transformed to look like the other gender. The results showed that children of both ages were more likely to respond correctly when the same proper name was used to refer to the picture throughout the task. In the second study, preschoolers, second-graders and fourth-graders were asked whether a change in proper name would change a person's gender, both by itself and with an accompanying appearance change. The results showed that younger children thought that gender would be changed by a proper name even when appearance remained constant. The results suggest that children who lack a solid understanding of gender constancy can be misled by changes in both appearance and proper name cues.

Genital Knowledge and Gender Constancy in Preschool Children

Genital Knowledge and Gender Constancy in Preschool Children

Genital Knowledge and Gender Constancy in Preschool Children

Etude des conceptions d'enfants d'âge prescolaire sur la conservation du sexe masculin ou feminin en depit de transformations perceptuelles

Gender schema, gender constancy, and gender-role knowledge: The roles of cognitive factors in preschoolers' gender-role stereotype attributions.

Gender schema, gender constancy, and gender-role knowledge: The roles of cognitive factors in preschoolers' gender-role stereotype attributions.

Gender schema, gender constancy, and gender-role knowledge: The roles of cognitive factors in preschoolers' gender-role stereotype attributions.

Gender schema, gender constancy, and gender-role knowledge: The roles of cognitive factors in preschoolers' gender-role stereotype attributions.

Cognitive Aspects of Early Sex-Role Development: The Influence of Gender Schemas on Preschoolers' Memories and Preferences for Sex-Typed Toys and Activities

CARTER, D. BRUCE, and LEVY, GARY D. Cognitive Aspects of Early Sex-Role Development: The Influence of Gender Schemas on Preschoolers' Memories and Preferences for Sex-typed Toys and Activities. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1988, 59, 782-792. 60 33-68-month-old children were interviewed to assess relations among sex-stereotype knowledge, stereotype flexibility, gender constancy, sex-typed toy preferences, gender schematization, and recognition memory for genderrelevant illustrations. Age was positively associated with recognition memory for stereotypeconsistent and inconsistent activities and negatively associated with simple recognition errors. Gender schematization was negatively associated with memory for stereotype-inconsistent activities and positively associated with gender transformational memory errors. Boys' toy preferences were more stereotype consistent and, for all children, preferences for sex-appropriate toys were positively associated with age and gender schematization. Sex-inappropriate preferences were negatively associated with gender schematization. Neither stereotype knowledge, stereotype flexibility, nor gender constancy reliably predicted memories or preferences.

Sex typing: Construct and measurement issues

This study examined the relationships among commonly used measures of sex typing. A sample of 101 children, three to five years of age, were each seen on three occasions and administered six different measures of sex typing. The results showed that relations among the various measures of sex typing were quite modest for girls and only moderate for boys. Gender constancy scores did not mediate the relationships among measures for either girls or boys. The results are interpreted as supporting a multidimensional view of children's sex typing and as urging caution in generalizing results based on single measures of sex typing.

Development of gender role knowledge and gender constancy.

Research suggests that children's developing knowledge about traditional gender roles has a substantial influence on how they process information pertaining to gender. Evidence also shows that as children attain gender constancy, their behaviors become especially responsive to gender-related information.

Stalking the Elusive Schema: Insights from Developmental and Social-Psychological Analyses of Gender Schemas

Research investigating the processing of gender-related information is examined by means of an integration across social-psychological and developmental literatures. First, social-psychological and developmental approaches to schemas in general, and to gender schemas in particular, are briefly summarized. Studies examining the effects of gender schemas on memory and information processing are then reviewed. Across both literatures, the findings of most studies suggest that gender-consistent information, however operationalized, is remembered better and processed more efficiently than gender-inconsistent information. Results are more mixed with respect to effects of variations in schema strength, defined as individual differences in sex stereotyping or sex typing. Next, effects of variations in schema strength are examined in terms of developmental differences in gender constancy and age. Because different measures of schema strength show different effects across age levels, it is suggested that two different aspects of schemas (knowledge and importance) may contribute differentially to different measures. Finally, the findings are discussed in terms of (1) underlying mechanisms, (2) implications for the social schema literature more generally, and (3) implications for social stereotyping.

Inferring Properties from Categories versus Inferring Categories from Properties: The Case of Gender

GELMAN, SUSAN A.; COLLMAN, PAMELA; and MACCOBY, ELEANOR E. Inferring Properties from Categories versus Inferring Categories from Properties: The Case of Gender. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 396-404. The present study tested a distinction between inferring new categories on the basis of property information (predicted to be difficult) and inferring new properties on the basis of category information (predicted to be easier). One group of preschoolers learned new properties for specific boys and girls and was asked to say which property a new child would have, given a gender label that conflicted with the child's appearance. Other children saw the identical stimuli but were to classify them as boy or girl when given a sex-linked property that conflicted with appearance. All children were also tested on gender constancy. As predicted, children performed poorly on gender constancy and the classification task but accurately inferred many sex-linked properties on the basis of category membership, ignoring conflicting perceptual information. Control conditions support the claim that these effects are not due to differential memory demands in the different conditions. Future research should distinguish between using a category as the basis for making property inferences and the developmentally later skill of classifying an object by using property information. Preschoolers can ignore conflicting perceptual information much more easily on the former than on the latter task.

Parental Socialization of Young Children's Play: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study

EISENBERG, NANCY; WOLCHIK, SHARLENE A; HERNANDEZ, ROBERT; and PASTERNACK, JEANNETTE F. Parental Socialization of Young Children's Play: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1985, 56, 1506-1513. In the present study, mothers' and fathers' socialization of 1-2-yearolds' sex-typed play behaviors was examined. For each parent, dyadic interactions were videotaped in the home on 2 occasions that were separated by about 6 months. Mothers and fathers did not differentially reinforce boys and girls for masculine or neutral play (feminine toys frequently were absent from the play sessions). However, sex of child did affect parents' choice of toys to use during the interactions. Parents of boys chose more neutral and masculine toys than feminine toys; parents of girls chose more neutral toys than masculine or feminine toys. Regardless of toy type, parental reinforcement decreased from Session 1 to Session 2. Parental toy choice but not parental positive reinforcement was related to children's play choices. Boys' play was more sex stereotypic than was that of girls, and both boys and girls played with more toys during mother-child sessions than fatherchild sessions. There was considerable consistency in children's choices of activities over time and in parental reinforcement for neutral toy play. Parental, especially maternal, differential reinforcement of sex-typed play was positively related to level of gender constancy at 2 to 2-6 years of age. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for the social learning account of sex-role development.

Cognitive factors in the development of sex-typed preferences

This study considered how children coordinate their understandings of gender identity and sex stereotypes to produce sex-typed preferences. Sex-typed preferences and gender constancy were assessed at ages 4 through 8 years on a cross section of urban black and white children (N=819). Findings verified that sex-stereotyped preferences are highly developed among young children prior to the period when gender constancy is fully developed. Additionally, by age 5, most children accurately attributed sex-stereotyped preferences to peers of the opposite sex. A distinction was made between a sex stereotype and a same-sex bias as a basis for a sex-typed preference. Gender constancy was shown to strengthen the same-sex bias as a determinant of a sex-typed preference, but this effect was context specific. Under certain conditions sex-stereotyped knowledge constrained the same-sex bias as a determinant of preferential choice.

Social and Cognitive Bases of Ethnic Identity Constancy

ABSTRACT Ethnic identity constancy was studied in order to extend the conclusions drawn from gender constancy research about the child's understanding of invariance. Ethnic constancy was operationalized as the stable categorization of a boy in terms of his ethnic group despite a clothing transformation. Children from 6 to 9 years of age were shown a sequence of photographs depicting the boy's transformation and required to make three types of ethnic identification. Constancy was not clearly evident till 8 years. To determine the abilities underlying its development, constancy was factor analyzed along with scores of a number of social and cognitive/perceptual measures. Constancy loaded on the first factor along with a social inference (inferring the boy's friend preference) and a measure of cognitive decentration (conservation of mass). The latter two abilities, according to a Guttman scalogram, were acquired before constancy, as was the awareness of ethnic permanence. It was concluded that ethnic constan...

The effects of books and gender constancy development on kindergarten children's sex-role attitudes

The effects of symbolic models and level of gender understanding on children's sex-role attitudes was investigated. Kindergarten boys and girls heard and discussed books whose characters depicted either traditional or nontraditional sex-role behaviors. Attitudes toward males and females were measured before and after the picture book treatment. When the study began, children were screened for gender understanding so that half were able to make other-gender constancy judgments, and half were not able to make other-gender constancy judgments. Prior to the treatment, boys and children who had attained gender constancy were slightly negative toward males and neutral toward females, whereas girls and children who had not attained gender constancy were very negative toward males and very positive toward females. Exposure to traditional books had the effect of enhancing attitudes toward males and decreasing attitudes toward females. Exposure to nontraditional books had the opposite effect of decreasing attitudes toward males and enhancing attitudes toward females. The effects of the picture book treatment on attitudes toward females were more pronounced for children who had attained other-gender constancy. Implications for social learning and cognitive-developmental theories of sex-role development are discussed.

The Development of Gender Understanding in Children

The development of gender understanding was studied in 7 1/2-year-old male and female Indian children. The experimental procedure involved the investigation of: (i) the saliency of genital cues, by means of a free classification procedure, (ii) gender understanding, by means of a questionnaire and (iii) its relationship to cognitive development, by testing the conservation of number and substance. The major result was that children could correctly label themselves but had not yet attained the concept of gender constancy. This made it difficult to establish a relationship to cognitive development. Further genital cues by themselves have no specific significance for the children. These and other findings were discussed in terms of their particular practical relevance.