title: Adults' perceptions of children's independence and other sex-role characteristics as a function of child's gender label.
abstract: Male and female college students were presented with a photograph labeled as a 5-yr.-old boy or girl and heard statements attributed to the child. They then rated the child on sex-role traits and responded to open-ended questions about the child. The primary findings involved sex of child by sex of adult interactions on ratings of independence and leadership: in both cases, same-sex children were rated higher than opposite-sex children. There was also some evidence that women having high contact with children rated the child more extremely on opposite-sex traits than did those with little contact.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001519:Behavior; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012737:Sex Factors; D012938:Social Perception; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior