'It's a boy because he's painting a picture': age differences in children's conventional and unconventional gender schemas.
Two studies investigated the development of children's gender knowledge using a procedure designed to tap into children's unconventional gender beliefs. Study 1 revealed a developmental progression with 34 3- to 4-year-old children providing more unconventional reasons than conventional reasons to explain the gender of a series of drawings. By contrast, 39 5- to 6-year-old and 42 7- to 8-year-old children provided more conventional than unconventional reasons. Study 2 found that a second sample of 42 3- to 4-year-old children mastered a close-ended assessment of gender stereotyping, while they relied on unconventional and conventional reasoning equally when explaining the gender of a series of drawings displaying conventional cues only. This research supports the model that children's conventional gender schemas do not develop before their unconventional gender schemas.
Kingston University, Kingston, Surrey, UK. h.tenenbaum@kingston.ac.uk
Harriet R
HR
Tenenbaum
Darryl B
DB
Hill
Nadia
N
Joseph
Erin
E
Roche
D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012931:Social Environment; D012938:Social Perception; D013240:Stereotyping