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The child's expectations of differences in adult male and female interactions

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Abstract

Children of two different age groups, 2-year-olds and 4-year-olds, were placed with male and female adults in a laboratory play situation where the children were forced to control the choice of toys and mode of interaction. The 4-year-old children elicited different types of play behaviors from male and female adults, while the younger children did not.

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Final preparations of this paper was completed on a post-doctoral fellowship (Grant No. 1 T32MH 16955-01) at Oregon Social Learning Center. The study with older children was presented at the biennial conference of the Society for Research in Child Development, San Francisco, March 1979.

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Fagot, B.I. The child's expectations of differences in adult male and female interactions. Sex Roles 11, 593–600 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288113

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288113

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