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The gender understanding of Swedish children

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Abstract

Due to variation across cultures in children's access to information about the nature of gender, there may be cross-cultural differences in the development of children's gender understanding. However, that development has previously been studied in American children exclusively. This paper reports a study of the gender understanding of children aged 4 to 8 in Sweden, where access to gender information is greater than in the United States. The Swedish children were found to be advanced relative to the previously-studied American children both in development of understanding of genital differences and in development of understanding of the genital basis of gender. Sex differences and referent effects are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of California, 90024, Los Angeles, California

    Maureen J. McConaghy (Staff Research Associate)

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  1. Maureen J. McConaghy
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Additional information

The author would like to thank Lynn Appleton, Phillip Bonacich, James Coleman, Jill Kiecolt, and Lynne Zucker for helpful comments. This research was supported by a fellowship granted by the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, with additional funding provided by the National Science Foundation and by the Committee on Research of the University of California. Preparatin of the paper was supported by a National Institute of Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellowship. The statements and conclusions herein are those of the author.

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McConaghy, M.J. The gender understanding of Swedish children. Child Psych Hum Dev 11, 19–32 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00705867

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