The gender understanding of Swedish children.
Due to variation across cultures in children's access to information about the nature of gender, there may be cross-cultural differences in the development of children's gender understanding. However, that development has previously been studied in American children exclusively. This paper reports a study of the gender understanding of children aged 4 to 8 in Sweden, where access to gender information is greater than in the United States. The Swedish children were found to be advanced relative to the previously-studied American children both in development of understanding of genital differences and in development of understanding of the genital basis of gender. Sex differences and referent effects are discussed.
D000367:Age Factors; D001828:Body Image; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D005836:Genitalia, Female; D005837:Genitalia, Male; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D008297:Male; D013548:Sweden; D014481:United States