Children's Stereotypes Research Articles

Beauty and Thinness Messages in Children's Media: A Content Analysis

Research suggests that young children have body image concerns, such as a desire for thinness and an avoidance of obesity. Surprisingly, few studies have investigated how children's body preferences and stereotypes are influenced by media aimed at children. In order to gain a better understanding of the content of such media, a content analysis was used to examine body image-related messages in popular children's videos and books. Results indicated that messages emphasizing the importance of physical appearance and portraying body stereotypes are present in many children's videos but relatively few books. Of the videos examined, the ones that exhibited the most body image-related messages were Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. Indian in the Cupboard and ET were the videos with the least number of body image-related messages. Of the books studied, the one with the highest number of body image-related messages was Rapunzel. Ginger and The Stinky Cheese Man were the only books studied that did not exhibit body image-related messages. Implications of an association of beauty and thinness in children's media are explored.

Content Analysis and Gender Stereotypes in Children's Books

This article deals with gender stereotypes in popular children's books. I propose an exercise in which students use content analysis to uncover latent gender stereotypes present in such popular books as those by Dr. Seuss. Using a coding frame based on traditional gender-role stereotypes, I assign students to small groups who then undertake a close analysis of selected children's books to see whether or not traditional gender-role stereotypes are apparent. Students examine the text, symbols, characters, use of color, and major themes in each book. In this article, I briefly review the theoretical underpinnings of the exercise, offer a brief summary of content analysis, and outline the delivery of the exercise, its learning goals, and major discussion points. Through a take-home assignment, students are asked to articulate the manner in which gender stereotypes may be perpetuated by the media. Additionally, students are encouraged to think about the ways in which their own gender identities have been shaped by the media. Actual student comments are used throughout to highlight the major discussion points.

Gender Stereotyping in Children's Reports About Educational and Informational Television Programs

Children in the 2nd through 6th grade wrote reports about their favorite educational and informational television programs, and the reports were examined for the presence of gender stereotypes. Children's written reports contained more male than female characters, more male than female pronouns, and more masculine than feminine behaviors. Effects were most pronounced for boys. Over time, preadolescent girls showed a greater preference for educational programs that featured female lead characters, and the girls used more feminine pronouns, behaviors, and expressed a greater range of feelings in their writings about their favorite programs. Girls and boys, however, were more likely to report masculine behaviors for male and female characters. Moreover, gender-stereotyping effects were eliminated for boys who selected a favorite program featuring an adventurous female lead character. Although memories of educational television programs are often gender stereotyped, a few nontraditional programs can drench the audience, providing nontraditional images and models for those who search for them.

On the assumption of fixity in children's stereotypes: A reappraisal

According to self‐categorization theory (Oakes, Haslam, & Turner, 1994), stereotypes vary to reflect variations in the comparative context within which they are formed. In this study we explore stereotype variability in a sample of 5‐ and 7‐year‐old children. Participants described a specific out‐group, and then described the in‐group (that is ‘boys’ or ‘girls’, depending on the sex of the participant). Description was provided by judging the proportion of group members to whom each trait from a list was seen as applicable. There were two experimental conditions: in the first condition the outgroup was represented by adult ‘men’ if participants were boys, or by adult ‘women’ if participants were girls. In the second condition the out‐group was represented by ‘girls’, if participants were boys, or by ‘boys’, if participants were girls. Descriptions of the in‐group were found to differ significantly with changes in the frame of reference amongst both 5‐ and 7‐year‐olds, though more for boys than girls. Overall, such findings challenge the widely held view that stereotypes are endemically stable cognitive structures.

Individual Differences in Race Schematicity as Predictors of African American and White Children's Race-Relevant Memories and Peer Preferences

Race schematicity, memories for racially stereotyped portrayals, and race-based peer preferences of 70 young children (32 African American, 38 White) were assessed. Consistent with schema-based models of stereotyping, race schematicity was positively and significantly associated with memory distortions of racial stereotype-inconsistent drawings into stereotype-consistent ones. Conversely, race schematicity was negatively and significantly associated with accurate memories for racial stereotype-inconsistent content, and with memory distortions of racial stereotype-consistent portrayals into stereotype-inconsistent ones. As predicted, race schematicity was positively and significantly associated with same-race peer preference bias, as was children's age in months. Results support application of the schematicity construct and relevant social psychological research with adults to the study of young African American and White children's racial stereotyping and processing of race-relevant information.

Representing a Different Culture: Exercises on Point of View

This paper analyses the concept of civilisation as it is constructed in anthropology and history, and uses the various dimensions so defined as a frame to understand how children grasp and make active use of the concepts in their interpretation of historical information. School fosters a notion of progress developing through different socio-historical forms which are understood as steps of a unique process. Such superordinate schemata of school history can preclude an understanding of 'otherness' deliberately situated within the other's perspective. The study investigates nine-year-old children's understanding and use of the notion of civilisation in the context of a historical task at school. Children were given a simplified version of a historical description of the Huns and were asked to take a stance about the Roman author's pejorative judgement of the Huns. Our analysis draws on the audio recordings of the small group and class group discussions. Data show the children's initial stereotyping reactions, but also how in the unfolding of the discussion the concepts were refined and became more articulated; children gained a capacity for relativism and perspective change. The class discussion even dealt with the criteria for historical judgement.

The Impact of Children's Static versus Dynamic Conceptions of People on Stereotype Formation

Recent cognitive‐developmental research has contributed much to our understanding of children's stereotyping. The present research identified another factor influencing stereotyping — children's theories about the malleability of human attributes. In two studies, 122 sixth graders learned about several different students' behaviors in unknown schools. In Study 1, they judged a school characterized by mostly negative behaviors, and in Study 2 they judged two schools (characterized by either mostly negative or positive behaviors). Across studies, children with a fixed view of personality (relative to those with a more malleable view of personality) made more extreme trait ratings of both the “positive” and “negative” schools, generalized their trait judgments to an unknown student, perceived greater within‐school similarity and between‐school differences, and showed less desire to interact with students in the “negative” school. Ways in which examining these theories may broaden our understanding of the origins of stereotyping and how to lessen it are discussed.

Gender Stereotyping of Children's Toys: A Comparison of Parents and Nonparents.

Parents and nonparents were compared to examinedifferences in the use of gender stereotyping toclassify children's toys. Gender-stereotyping was alsoexamined based on the age of the child. Parents and nonparents were sampled from a predominantlywhite, middle and upper middle class population.Subjects rated the appropriateness of 206 toys for useby girls and/or boys and were in general agreementregarding toys identified as gender-stereotyped. Ingeneral, feminine toys were stereotyped more thanmasculine toys although parents were more gender neutralin their ratings of toys than nonparents. Comparisons across mothers and fathers suggest thatinteractions with children may influence parentalperceptions of gender-appropriateness differentially formothers and fathers and is partly dependent on the sex of the child(ren). Finally, it appears thatwhile toys are gender stereotyped for all age groups,there is more flexibility in gender stereotyping of toysfor infants and toddlers.

Parents' gender-based attitudes toward marital roles and child rearing: Development and validation of new measures

Factor analysis of 18 Likert-type items dealing with gender stereotypes about family roles was conducted and yielded two measures: one focused on marital roles and one focussed on child rearing. Respondents were parents of children in the third and fourth grades of a large industrialized city in the Midwest. The sample included 364 families equally divided between middle and lower class with 23% African American and 77% European American. For both scales, more stereotyped scores were obtained by parents who were lower in social status, less educated, full-time homemakers, African Americans, and fathers. Parents' scores related to a separate measure of children's stereotypes and the marital-role attitudes related to actual roles reported by family members. Daughters whose parents obtained less stereotyped scores had a more internal locus of control, showed a trend toward more independent coping skills, and—in the middle class—obtained higher scores on achievement tests.

Children's Stereotypes of Visibly Physically Impaired Targets: An Empirical Study

Twenty-five primary school aged children with physical impairments from three special schools and matched able-bodied controls from three ordinary primary schools in the Greater Manchester area participated in the study. It was designed to explore the traits that each group would attribute to a visibly physically impaired target. It was assumed that if a set of traits were to be selected consistently then this might reflect an underlying social stereotype. The majority of able-bodied respondents assigned seven traits to the ‘disabled’ target and this finding was in line with that of researchers who suggest that children stereotype those who are physically impaired. Children who themselves had a physical impairment appeared not to hold stereotypical beliefs about those who were ‘handicapped’.

Influence of male teachers on elementary school children's stereotyping of teacher competence

Children from two elementary schools, one with thirty-three percent male teachers and the other with no male teachers, were asked to attribute a series of descriptive statements regarding teacher competence to a hypothetical male or female teacher pictured in a cartoon drawing. Students with male teachers were found to make significantly more non-stereotyping attributions than students with no male teachers (F (1,183)=15.07,p<.001). Multivariate analysis (MANOVA) was carried out on nine competency subscales and for a general competence composite score with school and subject gender as factors. No significant differences between schools were found but significant effects of sex and of a sex by school interaction were found. A discriminant analysis uncovered two canonical variables that discriminate among the four groups: female treatment, male treatment, female control, male control. The first function, number of female selections overall, discriminated the females from the males. The second canonical discrimination function, attribution of mismanagement, revealed that the responses of boys and girls are not the same from school to school. Control school children made negative attributions in the mismanagement subscale to opposite sex teachers, while treatment children made negative attributions to same sex teachers. In the assignment of mismanagement items, the presence of male teachers significantly influenced responses which ran counter to theories of sex-role identification, including projection by elementary school age children of negative qualities to the opposite sex. An analysis of descriptive data indicates that boys with male as well as female teachers made the most egalitarian attributions to male and female teachers. Data suggest that the inclusion of men as members of the elementary school faculty could be most beneficial to boys. The presence of male teachers was not found to influence boys' interest in becoming teachers. Interest in teaching was found to differ significantly by sex (X2=24.036, df=1,183, p<.001) but not by school. Neither control school nor treatment school boys wanted to become teachers, while girls overall reported significant interest in teaching careers. Limits in generalizability of the study due to differences in the two schools, a college laboratory school and a Catholic parochial school, are discussed. Similar patterns in responses of girls from the two schools and of boys from the control school suggest that parental and curricular differences of the two schools cannot of themselves account for significant differences.

Children's Sex-Related Stereotyping of Colors

Children's Sex-Related Stereotyping of Colors

Gender Stereotypes in Children's Books: their prevalence and influence on cognitive and affective development

ABSTRACT In the 1960s and 1970s many researchers in the USA noted the prevalence of gender stereotypes in books for children. Numerous studies showed that females were typically portrayed as passive, dependent and generally incapable, and that males were typically portrayed as active, independent and generally competent. Stereotype patterns were consistent across a variety of reading materials, including picture‐books, fiction for older readers and school‐books. Some researchers questioned what the potential effects of such stereotypes might be on readers, but few examined these questions empirically. A review of this literature led us to question whether increased awareness about the potentially harmful effects of gender stereotypes had led to their elimination from books intended for young readers. This paper describes the data we collected on a set of picture‐books. We found that while the prevalence of stereotypes has decreased somewhat, the decreases in quantity and in kind have not been statisticall...

Ethnic preferences of pre‐school children

This article describes a projective research tool developed to study children's ethnic preferences and stereotypes. It presents empirical data concerning the effect of ethnic background of pre‐school children on their preferences for adult helpers and educational staff. Findings from the research indicate that four‐year olds are ambivalent about their ethnic preferences. However, by age five, children had developed clear ethnic preferences. Specifically, children of Western ethnic origin preferred Western adults, and so did a majority of children of Eastern ethnic background (prefer Western adults). Discussion is presented regarding interpretation of the findings and their implications.

Stereotypes in Literature: Through the Hebrew Looking-Glass: Arab Stereotypes in Children's Literature. . Fouzi El-Asmar. ; An Ugly Face in the Mirror: National Stereotypes in Hebrew Children's Literature. . Adir Cohen.

Stereotypes in Literature: Through the Hebrew Looking-Glass: Arab Stereotypes in Children's Literature. . Fouzi El-Asmar. ; An Ugly Face in the Mirror: National Stereotypes in Hebrew Children's Literature. . Adir Cohen.

A developmental study of children's stereotyping of facially deformed adults.

A frequent complaint of facially deformed people is that they are rejected by others. This study was designed to examine whether negative reactions to facially deformed people would be demonstrated by girls and boys aged 5-11 years. The children were asked to attribute positive or negative characteristics to photographs in which adults were shown before and after minor oral surgery. Despite the relatively small differences in appearance between each adult's before- and after-operation photographs, it was found that, whereas overall the younger children selected faces at around chance level (i.e. 50 per cent), the 11-year-olds on 75 per cent of occasions selected in response to questions concerning friendliness and helping (deemed 'positive') the after-operation photographs, and in response to questions concerning fear and anger (deemed 'negative') the before-operation photographs. When the children's own judgements of facial attractiveness were related to the faces they had chosen in response to positive and negative questions, while again for the five-year-olds only chance responding (50 per cent) was observed, by age seven 75 per cent, and by age 11 90 per cent, of choices suggested facial stereotyping.

Sex Role Stereotyping in Children's Advertising: Current and past Trends

Abstract A content analysis of 64 television commercials directed toward children was conducted. An examination of sex role stereotyping with previous trends suggested little change over the past decade in terms of ad dominance, active/passive behavior, aggressive behavior, voice-overs, and audiotrack/background music. The importance of tracking change is footed in research describing the importance of observational learning in children's development. It should be stressed that statements about change, or the lack thereof, are tempered in recognition of methodological differences among studies. When conducting content analytic investigations, researchers make decisions that may influence outcomes. Sound trend analysis is thus made difficult.

The etiology of children's stereotypes about sex differences in emotionality

Contemporary preschool-aged children have pronounced sex-role stereotypes about emotionality. They feel that anger is a male characteristic, while fear, sadness, and happiness are female characteristics. Four studies investigated several possible sources of these stereotypes, including parental stereotypes, parental reinforcement practices, television programming, and actual sex-differences in emotionality. The results suggest that each of these sources may potentially contribute to children's stereotypes about emotionality.

Multi-Dimensional Ratings of Adult Occupations

Occupations have traditionally been classified on the basis of sex-type, job description, or educational level and potential income. In this study the question of whether occupations can be grouped on the basis of particular social attributes is addressed. Subjects ( N = 118) rated each of 58 occupations on selected social attributes, specifically, prestige, power, complexity associated with an occupation and strength and gentleness required for an occupation, as well as sex-type. A cluster analysis procedure was used to group occupations on the basis of the ratings. Nine clusters resulted, five essentially male, three female, and one neutral. All were further distinguished on the basis of the social attributes. The exploratory nature of this study is noted and the relevance of these findings for research in children's stereotyping of occupations and in the development of occupational models is discussed.

A Schematic Processing Model of Sex Typing and Stereotyping in Children

MARTIN, CAROL LYNN, and HALVERSON, CHARLES F., JR. A Schematic Processing Model of Sex Typing and Stereotyping in Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 1119-1134. The thesis of the present paper is that sex stereotyping is a normal cognitive process and is best examined in terms of information-processing constructs. A model is proposed in which stereotypes are assumed to function as schemas that serve to organize and structure information. The particular schemas involved in stereotyping are described, and the functions and biases associated with these schemas are elaborated. Both the development and maintenance of stereotypes are explained using the schematic processing model. The schematic model is found to be useful for explaining many of the results from sex-typing and stereotyping studies, as well as indicating areas needing further investigation. To describe the relation between sex schemas and other types of schemas, a typology is proposed which divides schemas according to whether they are potentially self-defining and according to their salience or availability. Using the typology, stereotyping and sex stereotyping are said to occur because the schemas involved are self-defining and salient. The role of salience in mediating the use of schemas is discussed.