Evidence suggests that oral narrative skills are a linguistic strength for African American children, yet few studies have examined how these skills are associated with reading for African American boys and girls. The current study uses longitudinal data of a sample of 72 African American 4-year-olds to examine how preschool oral narrative skills…

Few systematic studies of play in foragers exist despite their significance for understanding the breadth of contexts for human development and the ontogeny of cultural learning. Forager societies lack complex social hierarchies, avenues for prestige or wealth accumulation, and formal educational institutions, and thereby represent a contrast to…

To assess the flexibility of reasoning about gender, children ages 4, 6, and 8 years (N = 72) were interviewed about gender norms when different domains were highlighted. The majority of participants at all ages judged a reversal of gender norms in a different cultural context to be acceptable. They also judged gender norms as a matter of personal…

Drawing from developmental and cultural adaptation perspectives and using a longitudinal design, this study examined: (a) mean-level changes in Mexican-origin adolescents' cultural orientations and adjustment from early to late adolescence and (b) bidirectional associations between cultural orientations and adjustment using a cross-lag panel…

Gender intensification, an increased pressure for adolescents to conform to culturally sanctioned gender roles, has been posited as an explanation for the emergence of the gender difference in depression. This longitudinal study assessed whether 410 individuals became more stereotypical in their gender-role identity across adolescence and whether…

In order to investigate sex-role identity and learned helplessness as possible mediating factors affecting performance on formal operational tasks, the responses of 60 male and female adolescents were assessed. Contrary to expectations, the performances of individuals with feminine versus masculine sex roles did not differ significantly.…

Examines children's relabeling of roles when confronted with counter-stereotypical occupational portrayals. A total of 128 children between the ages of five and six years were shown four films depicting all possible combinations of female and male physicians and nurses. They were then questioned with regard to the sex and occupational roles of the…

The development of gender attitudes in 402 youth (201 firstborn and 201 secondborn siblings) in 201 European American families was examined using data collected on seven occasions across 9 years. Pooling across siblings and using multilevel modeling, we examined gender attitude development from ages 7 to 19. Consistent with an ecological…

Reports an investigation of divisions of labor in child care within the home and the relationship between these divisions and the masculinity, femininity, and androgyny of mothers and fathers. (JMB)

Interest in babies was studied in 120 young adult males and females belonging to four stages of life: cohabiting singles, childless-married couples, expecting first child, and parents of an infant. Measures included responsivity to an unfamiliar baby, interest in pictures of babies, and a sex-role self-concept inventory. (Author/JMB)

Self-reports about 70 masculine and feminine behaviors were collected from 177 undergraduates and their families and were correlated within family pairs to assess family resemblances in masculine or feminine preferences. The obtained family correlations were compared with those predicted by three theoretical models of gender-identity acquisition.…

Eight operationally defined "feminine" gestures were recorded for 48 elementary school aged boys and girls while they individually performed a standardized play task. Results showed a significant overall difference between the sexes with three specific gestures discriminating significantly between the sexes. (Author/JMB)

Investigates the manner in which preschool children use two sources of sex-appropriateness information (labeling and modeling) to direct their subsequent behavior and preferences for associated items. It is suggested that young children give lesser weights to the sex of a single model than to labels that may summarize general rules of conduct.…

Analysis of the modeled behaviors of 64 children from 4 to 11 years of age indicated that a major factor in sex differences in children's imitation is the sex appropriateness of the modeled behavior relative to the observer when a sex-typed behavior is modeled. (Author/JMB)