Abstract
Earlier studies have shown the girls spend more time than boys in activities that are highly structured by adults. Structured activities may encourage feminine sex-typed behaviors such as compliance to adults; low-structure activities may encourage masculine sex-typed behaviors such as independence and assertiveness. In the present study the effects of high or low levels of adult structuring on children's social behavior during preschool free-play activities were tested in a field experiment carried out during an entire semester in one preschool classroom. For the first 15 minutes of free play, children were assigned to high- or low-structure activities. As predicted, when children were in high-structure activities, they exhibited high rates of bids for recognition and compliance to adults; in low-structure activities, they exhibited peer-directed leadership, bids for recognition, and compliance. There were no generalized effects of these treatments on their subsequent free choice of activities or social behavior. The study demonstrates powerful effects of naturally occurring variations in children's play activities on sex-typed social behaviors.
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Portions of this research were presented at the Association for Behavior Analysis Convention, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 1981, and at the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy Convention, Los Angeles, 1982. We are grateful to the teachers at the Edna A. Hill Child Development Laboratory preschool who assisted in this study: Lynn F. Bjidanes, Heidi A. Clark, Barbara J. Kelly, Nancy L. Mulvihill, Susan A. Stedham, and Carmen Walton. We are also indebted to Lynda Powell and Irene Brockleman-Keller for their help as observers, and to Antonya Nelson, Kathy Petrowsky, Deborah Cassidy, and Patricia Howe for their help as data assistants. The research was supported by grant MH33082 from the National Institute of Mental Health.
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Jan Carpenter, C., Huston, A.C. & Holt, W. Modification of preschool sex-typed behaviors by participation in adult-structured activities. Sex Roles 14, 603–615 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287691
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287691