Gender-stereotyped preferences in childhood and early adolescence: A comparison of cross-sectional and longitudinal data

Autor(en)
Margit H. Kanka, Petra Wagner, Marlis Buchmann, Christiane Spiel
Abstrakt

Children are exposed to a gender-specific environment on an everyday basis through media, books, school supplies and especially toys. Children's movies and television programs were found to portray protagonists' occupational and private roles in a very traditional, gender-stereotypical way. The present two studies aimed to investigate gender-specific preferences in childhood and early adolescence. Cross-sectional data (study 1) were compared to longitudinal one (study 2) as we specifically aimed to investigate changes in gender preferences over time. A person-oriented approach, namely Configural Frequency Analysis was applied, to categorically analyze the relationship and development of gender-stereotyped preferences throughout childhood and early adolescence. Consistent with former studies, study 1 showed that gender-stereotypical preferences increased by age, for boys to a higher extent than for girls. By the age of twelve, these preferences had decreased supporting the theory of Kohlberg that children's gender-stereotypic preferences continuously grow until around six years of age to finally lower thereafter. Gender-specific preferences generally became much more flexible over time.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Arbeits-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialpsychologie
Externe Organisation(en)
Ferdinand Porsche Fernfachhochschule, Universität Zürich (UZH), Fachhochschule Oberösterreich
Journal
European Journal of Developmental Psychology
Band
16
Seiten
198-214
Anzahl der Seiten
17
ISSN
1740-5629
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2017.1365703
Publikationsdatum
03-2019
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
501002 Angewandte Psychologie, 501016 Pädagogische Psychologie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Developmental and Educational Psychology, Social Psychology
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/c1b306c9-3522-4d83-b0dc-a1a4abba11f8