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Gender attitudes in children

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Abstract

This study investigated children's gender attitudes as a function of the sex, age, and race of the child as well as a geographical SES factor. Two attitudes were measured: gender pride (attributing positive characteristics to a child of the same sex) and gender prejudice (attributing negative characteristics to a child of the other sex). Results indicated that all children tended to select children of the same sex for the positive attributes, but that both boys and girls selected boys for the negative attributes. Although all sex pride scores decreased with age, this effect was most pronounced for girls from an upper-lower-class urban environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hunter College, USA

    Sue Rosenberg Zalk

  2. Institute for Research on Social Problems, 528 Pearl Street, 80302, Boulder, Colorado

    Phyllis A. Katz

Authors
  1. Sue Rosenberg Zalk
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  2. Phyllis A. Katz
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Additional information

The write-up of this article was supported by our current National Institute of Mental Health Grant No. 1R01MH29417-01, Principal Investigator, Dr. Phyllis A. Katz.

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Zalk, S.R., Katz, P.A. Gender attitudes in children. Sex Roles 4, 349–357 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287287

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287287

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