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Rigidity and flexibility of gender stereotypes in children: Developmental or differential?

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Previous research has shown that the early learning of male–female categories is characterized by rigid beliefs about stereotypic differences, but that once gender knowledge is well established, the beliefs become more flexible. Because most studies are cross-sectional, it is not known if the early rigidity represents a normative transitional developmental stage that passes, or if early individual differences in rigidity continue into later childhood. To answer that question, analyses were performed on longitudinal data of 64 children who had been questioned about their gender concepts yearly from ages 5 to 10 years. Supporting a cognitive-developmental approach, the findings showed that the period of rigidity was short-lived whether rigidity began early or late or whether the level of peak rigidity was high or low. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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... However, this expected influence of the audience gender may not be the same across childhood because the importance of genderrelated information in the way children interact and communicate varies according to their age. Many researchers report a three-stage developmental sequence relative to the conceptualization of gender-related information (Leaper & Friedman, 2007;Martin, 1989;Ruble et al., 2006;Trautner et al., 2005). During the first stage (i.e., construction/information gathering), children aged between 3 and 5 become aware of gender-related characteristics. ...
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The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
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