Abstract
From a young age, children’s peer appraisals are influenced by the social categories to which peers belong based on factors such as race and gender. To date, research regarding the manner in which race- and gender-related factors might interact to influence these appraisals has been limited. The present study employed an experimental vignette paradigm to investigate the relative influences of target peers’ race, gender, and gender-typed behavior toward 4- to 6-year-old Chinese children’s (N = 119, 62 girls, 57 boys) peer appraisals. Appraisals were assessed via (1) a rating scale measuring children’s interest in being friends with a range of hypothetical target peers varying in race, gender, and gender-typed behavior, and (2) a forced-choice rank-order task in which children indicated their preferences for four hypothetical target peers who varied from themselves on either race, gender, or gender-typed behavior, or were similar to themselves on all three traits. There was little evidence to suggest children’s rank-ordered peer preferences in relation to race were influenced by whether the other-race presented was White (preferred relatively more) or Black (preferred relatively less). In contrast, gender-related factors (i.e., rater gender, target gender, target gender-typed behavior) had more robust influences on peer preferences for both outcome measures. Gender-conforming peers were preferred over gender-nonconforming peers, and target boys displaying feminine behavior were less preferred than target girls displaying masculine behavior. The results help characterize cross-cultural (in)consistencies in children’s social preferences in relation to peers’ race and gender.
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02 January 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01899-1
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Children are assumed as displaying gender-conforming behaviors.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Research (4301600445) to DPV, a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (31771227) awarded to GF, and grants from the National Social Science Major Project of China (18ZDA331) and the National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (31571147) awarded to BZ.
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Appendix
Appendix
The ANOVA table for rater gender, other-race presented, target race, target gender, and target gender-typed behavior for friendship preference response (critical alpha = .0016)
Variables | F | p | \( \eta^{2}_{p} \) |
|---|---|---|---|
Rater gender | 1.85 | .1771 | .016 |
Other-race presented | 1.55 | .2160 | .013 |
Target race | 7.27 | .0081 | .059 |
Target gender | 15.83 | .0001 | .121 |
Target gender-typed behavior | 4.18 | .0432 | .035 |
Other-race presented × rater gender | 1.19 | .2771 | .0101 |
Target gender × other-race presented | 2.06 | .1542 | .018 |
Target gender × rater gender | 6.18 | .0143 | .051 |
Target gender × target gender-typed behavior | 21.36 | < .0001 | .157 |
Target gender-typed behavior × other-race presented | 1.02 | .3137 | .009 |
Target gender-typed behavior × rater gender | 13.04 | .0005 | .102 |
Target race × other-race presented | 0.71 | .4015 | .006 |
Target race × rater gender | 0.01 | .9934 | .001 |
Target race × target gender | 0.79 | .3753 | .007 |
Target race × target gender-typed behavior | 0.72 | .3985 | .006 |
Target gender × other-race presented × rater gender | 3.09 | .0816 | .026 |
Target gender × target gender-typed behavior × other-race presented | 3.18 | .0770 | .027 |
Target gender × target gender-typed behavior × rater gender | 3.01 | .0852 | .026 |
Target gender-typed behavior × other-race presented × rater gender | 0.14 | .7122 | .001 |
Target race × other-race presented × rater gender | 0.86 | .3549 | .007 |
Target race × target gender × other-race presented | 0.27 | .6038 | .002 |
Target race × target gender × rater gender | 1.20 | .2762 | .010 |
Target race × target gender × target gender-typed behavior | 0.24 | .6289 | .002 |
Target race × target gender-typed behavior × other-race presented | 0.97 | .3265 | .008 |
Target race × target gender-typed behavior × rater gender | 0.52 | .4742 | .004 |
Target gender × target gender-typed behavior × other-race presented × rater gender | 2.86 | .0935 | .024 |
Target race × target gender × other-race presented × rater gender | 0.17 | .6826 | .001 |
Target race × target gender × target gender-typed behavior × other-race presented | 0.19 | .6654 | .002 |
Target race × target gender × target gender-typed behavior × rater gender | 0.01 | .9303 | < .0001 |
Target race × target gender-typed behavior × other-race presented × rater gender | 1.24 | .2673 | .011 |
Target race × target gender × target gender-typed behavior × other-race presented × rater gender | 0.01 | .9187 | .001 |
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Qian, M., Wang, Y., Wong, W.I. et al. The Effects of Race, Gender, and Gender-Typed Behavior on Children’s Friendship Appraisals. Arch Sex Behav 50, 807–820 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01825-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01825-5