Gender schema theory (GST) posits that children approach opportunities perceived as gender appropriate, avoiding those deemed gender inappropriate, in turn affecting gender-differentiated career trajectories. To test the hypothesis that children's gender salience filters (GSF--tendency to attend to gender) moderate these processes, 62 preschool…

Responds to concerns that individual items included as stereotypes in the Occupation Activity Trait Scales (children's and adult's versions) are not highly stereotyped. Discusses future directions for research, noting that a developmental approach is critical to understanding gender differentiation establishment and that it is also important to…

Four studies established the reliability and validity of measures for assessing attitudes toward others and sex typing of self in occupations, activities, and traits. A fifth study provided longitudinal data from children tested 4 times from age 11 to 13 years. Data supported conceptual distinctions among individual's gender attitudes toward…