Gender roles are social norms and behaviors that are considered appropriate in social situations for people of different sexes. Understanding of this role is evident in children as young as age 4 and is very important for their social development. Gender role is influenced by media, family, environment, and society. A child's understanding of gender roles affects how they socialize with their peers and form relationships. Many young people have a strong gender identity identity, while some children may experience confusion of gender identity. In addition to biological maturation, children develop in a set of social norms and gender-specific behaviors embedded in family structure, natural play patterns, close friendships, and social forest full of school life. The role of gender encountered in childhood plays a major role in shaping individual self-concepts and influencing the way he forms relationships later in life.
Video Gender roles in childhood
Parental influence
Expectations for the future life of children, such as financial success or future care delivery, can cause parents to encourage certain behaviors in children. However, most of the behaviors of parents remain unaffected by the sex of the child, including talking to, playing, teaching, and caring.
Family dynamics can primarily affect gender specialization. Boys 'parents are more likely to express a view of conservative gender roles than do girls' parents, with fathers emphasizing the role of male paternal change for men. The effects of parental expectations on gender roles can be seen primarily in the role that children play in household chores. Girls generally do more housework than boys and the kind of housework assigned to children is very dependent on the sexes. Thus, household dynamics further increase expectations of gender roles in children.
Children's toy preference is significantly related to typing the gender of parents, such as girls who play with dolls and boys who participate in sports. While fathers and mothers encourage traditional gender roles in their children, fathers tend to encourage this role more often than mothers. Parents choose activities that they believe will be enjoyed and appreciated by their children. By choosing their children's activities, parents directly influence the views and preferences of their gender roles to their children and shape expectations.
Hines & amp; Kaufman (1994) examines the preference and behavior of toys in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a condition characterized by exposure to high androgen levels in utero . The results showed that female CAH showed more masculine behavior that could be observed through the choice of toys as well as drawings and rough play and collisions. While the results are interesting, parents' expectations, in addition to biology, can play a major role in shaping behavioral outcomes. Early diagnosis can cause parents to expect, and therefore, forgive, more masculine behavior, implicitly socializing CAH girls to express themselves in certain ways. In girls who develop normally, masculine behavior may be discouraged, and parents can direct their daughters toward more traditional toys, colors, and preferences. This alternative social explanation complicates the neat interpretation of causality between hormones and behavior.
Maps Gender roles in childhood
Play pattern
In early childhood, gender roles become clear in play patterns. Until 1983, differences in the game were ignored in the study of differences between boys and girls, but recent research has explained these sex differences.
Hardy et al (2009). discusses the differences between preschool boys and girls in the development of their fundamental movements. This time period is very important because if the basic movement skills of children are not well developed, then their future development will be affected drastically. The study took 425 preschoolers and asked them to perform certain basic motion skills such as locomotor and object control skills. After examining children performing these movements, the researchers found that female preschoolers were generally better in locomotor movements, whereas preschoolers were better at controlling objects. These findings emphasize the need for leading programs in which boys and girls can work together and integrate their skills for opportunities to develop greater future skills.
One of the earliest signs of gender differences in play patterns is the emergence of gender-disaggregated play groups and toy preferences. Boys tend to be more "rough and tumble" in their games, while girls shy away from this aggressive behavior, which leads to the formation of separate play groups. Calvert 2013 In addition, boys tend to be more interested in toys like trucks while girls tend to be attracted to dolls, but these preferences are not absolute. A study by Alexander, Wilcox, and Woods showed that female infants showed a deeper visual interest in dolls on toy trucks while boys showed more visual interest in toy trucks over dolls, but this difference was more pronounced in women. This study shows that preference for feminine or masculine toys precedes gender differences in the perceptual features of the toy, leading to the assumption that gender-based toy preferences are innate.
One of the most interesting theories in terms of biologically determined gender differences is the notion that male preference and women's preference for toys are mediated by injustice in visual processing. The main claim is that men and women are programmed to specialize on certain forms of perception: special, perception of motion and perception of shapes and colors, respectively. Alexander (2003) makes a very strong case. The authors point out that gender differences inherent by perception categories encourage children to seek playmates from the same playing style, and ultimately influence them for future social and gender roles (Alexander, 2003). Human vision operates on the basis of two grounded anatomical systems: the magnoseluler path (M-cell) and the parvoselular path (P cells). Both pathways are present in men and women, and M-cells are designed to recognize motion, while P-cells specialize in color form and perception (Alexander, 2003). Several studies have shown that sex-related differences in M-cells versus P-cell dominance may be the underlying factors for differences in toy preference in children, potentially validating the stereotype that boys prefer toy cars and balls (objects associated with movement) while girls prefer dolls and stuffed animals (objects that are characterized by different facial characteristics, shapes, and colors).
Beyond hormonal explanations, Alexander (2003) also uses an evolutionary biology perspective to link contemporary toy preferences with early selective pressures and the development of visual specialization. In particular, the dominance of the male M-cell pathway is reconnected to mediated motion activity such as hunting and projectile throwing. The female P-cell dominance is related to feeding for plants, tasks that require discrimination between color and shape memory. Color is very important in foraging, because discrimination between colors helps in identifying the ripe fruit of the surrounding greenery. Hence, the "red-green opposite system" is considered a more recently linked and phylogenetically linked X chromosome, in contrast to the more rudimentary "yellow-blue" system present at the same rate in both sexes (Alexander 2003). According to theory, this adaptation has survived throughout human evolution, and may contribute to contemporary sexual dimorphism in skills and preferences. From this position, Alexander (2003) states that the pink color as female and blue colors as boys' colors may not be completely arbitrary.
In separate studies by Gredlin and Bjorklund (2005), it was found that there were sex differences in object manipulation. The experiment is done by putting the desired toys in an unreachable place but also giving 5 different tools that he can use to help retrieve this object. Children are placed in this condition and whatever decisions they make are spontaneous and independent; they were only given instructions after they failed the task 5 times. The results showed that 77% of boys used one tool to reach the toy, while only 31% of the girls used one tool. This suggests that boys are more likely to participate in the manipulation of objects, and this may be because they spend more time in object-oriented games. The study also found that girls spend more time in social games. Evolution may play a role in this phenomenon; differences in play styles between boys and girls manifest in adult behavior.
Another study by Alexander and Saenz found that two-year-old girls prefer toys that are usually associated with women rather than those associated with men, but, once again, interesting, two-year-old boys show only a small preference for masculine toys more feminine toys. Both of these studies support the idea that toy preferences, though gender-based, are not a perfect indication of gender identity. Furthermore, a study by Jadva, Hines, and Golombok shows that while boys and girls show more visual attention to specific toys for their sex, there is no significant gender difference in color or shape preference at a young age, which suggests that, for example, the preference for pink in girls is largely derived from societal norms rather than from innate capacity. The differences in play are not concrete, as mentioned, because some games with "other-gender" toys are fairly common. Rubel and Martin show that there is often a cross-gender game in boys and girls, and this is typical of development. However, it is hypothesized that atypical gender playing patterns, such as boys who play almost exclusively with dolls and not typical masculine toys and who prefer to play with girls over boys, are indicative of later homosexuality.
In a study by Eric W. Lindsey and Jacquelyn Mize, context can have a major influence on the type of activities children will follow. For example, this article describes that if a parent associates certain household tasks with gender inadvertently, the child can get the idea that certain things are "masculine" and "feminine." This is illustrated in the article by example of a father doing plot work with his son instead of interior housework; this inherently gives the child the idea that these tasks are more "handsome" and the male role to do at home. This may affect the role of gender in childhood.
Lobel & amp; Menashri (1993) explores how the rigidity of gender schemes guides behavior. The interest population consists of preschoolers selected from three different preschools in Tel-Aviv, Israel, and the study focuses on the relationship between children's gender-type toy choices, their frameworks on cross-gender behavior, and their concepts of gender constancy.. During the procedure, two feminine and two masculine toys are presented to individual children: new dolls, ragged old dolls, glistening new trucks, and faded old trucks. Based on pretest, dolls and trucks are clearly recognized as feminine and masculine, as well as attractive and unattractive based on their quality. All children prefer new toys when presented with a pair of toys with gender. Children were first given a toy preference test, then gender assessment interviews, and then interviewing the gender role norm. The results show that children with a more flexible view of gender role norms make fewer gender-type choices than children with rigid norms. Similarly, for children with more flexible gender norms, the attractiveness of toys has proven to be more related to preferences than to adherence to a traditional gender role. This result raises the question: where does this flexibility in gender behavior come from? The authors support the explanation that the norms of parents play a big role, but insist that further research should be done. Echoing Serbin et al. (2001), they also assert that a certain degree of cognitive ability must be achieved to demonstrate flexibility in gender roles, otherwise the fundamental conceptions of gender can be confused with external objects associated with traditional gender roles.
In addition to play patterns being indicative of sexual orientation, the presence of homosexual or heterosexual relationships in the family can in turn influence the pattern of play in children. It has been suggested that children of same-sex couples be raised differently, so that gender roles differ from heterosexual parents. This point of view is validated in a recent study by Goldberg, Kashy, and Smith, which shows that lesbian girls' children are less masculine in the way they play compared to gay fathers or heterosexual parents. While the study supports a point of view about the effects of same-sex parenting, further research to validate the long-term consequences of such care is necessary.
In a 2015 study, it was found that children over the age of two showed a stronger preference for the color of the object, compared with what the object was. The child is more interested in toys traditionally colored, regardless of whether the toy is a toy typical for their gender. Due to the separation of advertised, or colored, toys for certain genders, it can hamper cognitive and social skills. Child-oriented toys focus on spatial skills, and girls-oriented toys focus on social or verbal skills. In solitary play, both girls and boys are more likely to play with gender-specific toys, but as found by Signorella (2012), but in group play, gender neural activity is more likely.
Friendship
The role of gender can also be seen in friendship and peer interactions at a young age. Research has found that boys and girls interact with same-sex peers more often than with the opposite sex. One study found that during early childhood (3-5 years) boys were more affiliated than girls with familiar colleagues and that boys were more likely to visit colleagues than girls and more boys than women spend a lot of time with colleagues. A different study found boys and girls found to be involved in the frequency of very similar dyadic interactions. However, girls who engage in dyadic interactions are further expanded and boys in larger episodes. The study found this to be true at 4 and 6 years, suggesting that gender differences in the dyadic interaction patterns appear before 5 years. In terms of group activities, boys were found to be engaged in more coordinated group activities after the age of 5 years than before. This study provides evidence that group interaction occurs over a period of time in the male friend's culture.
Studies with preschoolers produce a major effect that shows boys have a more integrated social network than girls where their friends or playmates are more likely to be friends or playmates with each other. Likewise, a special study that observed early teen friendship patterns in early childhood and summer camps found a major influence for the social network density that supports boys towards the end of summer camp, suggesting that over time, friends men but not women increasingly tend to be friends with each other.
In terms of the pattern of behavior seen in friendship, no differences are found in helping younger teens' behavior. Looking at the content of peer interactions, early teenage girls have been found to spend more time in social conversation and self-disclosure than boys. Girls have also been found to respond in a more prosocial way to hypothetical conflict situations in early childhood and early adolescence. Studies in middle-age children typically reveal significant effects that indicate that girls are more likely than boys to accept certain types of conditions in their friendship, including higher levels of affection, affection, nurturing, trust, validation, and higher acceptance. However, no differences were found for satisfaction of friendship.
Interestingly, a study saw dyeric friendship, believed to be the preferred form of relationship for girls, and found that the bond between men was more durable than women. The study reported that starting as early as 6 years, external observers reported that same-sex friendships less than female 'had ended.
School
As children enter preschool or kindergarten, they have a general understanding of the sexes and have internalized some basic schemes of each role and appearance. This scheme is largely complemented by parental interactions, media exposure, and underlying biological factors (eg inherent aggressiveness, sexual orientation), although some children may also learn from limited social interaction with individuals outside the family. However, early conceptions of gender roles experienced a radical change as children entered school. Here, the child will face various approaches to gender, assimilate new information into their existing structure and adjust their own views to suit new individuals, institutional demands, and new social situations. This dissemination process is differentiated between gender, and the general trend in the social constructions of primary children reflects the gender organization in the family and society in general. One way to evaluate the role of gender in schoolchildren is to dissect the hierarchy of popularity they build and live. Many studies have done this, and significant differences are evident between the sexes. Athletic strength is the most significant factor in popularity among boys, and one study even reported that the most popular men in every school they observed were the best athletes. Those with no athletic tendency can still achieve moderate level of popularity by simply adopting an interest in sports, while boys who have no athletic tendency or are interested in sports are generally harassed and victimized by their more popular counterparts. This may be seen as an extension of the rough and aggressive game that boys perform at a young age. Boys can also become popular by wearing "cool" clothes and have trendy gadgets, although this is a much more important factor among girls. Socioeconomic status, which greatly contributes to a child's ability to get cool products, is considered one of the most important factors in the popularity of a girl in school. The girls of wealthy parents are able to buy expensive makeup and accessories that allow them to imitate superficial standards of fame, making them more attractive to boys and more popular.
The role of academic achievement in determining popularity is also very different between the sexes; in the first few years of schooling, scholastic success is positively correlated with the popularity of boys. However, because boys near adolescence, achievement in school is often seen as a source of shame and indication of femininity. In addition, ignoring authority and disobedience is common among popular boys. Among girls, academic achievement has a small correlation with popularity altogether. Girls are more likely to appreciate the inherent effort of ability, whereas the opposite applies to boys. Both sexes place value on social intelligence, with children more skilled at mature interactions with peers and adults generally becoming more popular.
The structure of independent hierarchical popularity for boys and girls acts as a mechanism that mediates the interactions of both sexes. Initially, cross-gender interaction is not recommended because boys and girls divide and create most of the separate social areas. Especially among boys, behaviors and habits associated with the opposite sex are perceived as undesirable and punishable. Although most young boys show curiosity about the opposite sex when in a private setting, public curiosity is not acceptable. Members of each gender strive to achieve their masculinity or feminine ideas that are actively built, divided, and shared together, at the same time keeping a secret interest in the mystery of the opposite sex. As children mature and refine their ideas about what it means to be male or female, gradually become accepted to approach individuals of the other sex. Cross-gender relations generally improve social status only as far as their romantic orientation, as mere friendships that do not involve kisses or dates are often seen with suspicion. Initially, interaction with the opposite sex is reserved for the most popular boys and girls, and couples tend to emulate themselves roughly by popularity through junior high school and beyond.
Stereotypes on media
Young children aged four to five years have been shown to have a very strong gender stereotype. In addition to deliberate parent and teacher efforts to shape gender roles, children also learn through the mass media (television, books, radio, magazines, and newspapers), where children are exposed every day. For preschoolers, an important source of information is picture books written specifically for their age group, which are often read and re-read for them in years that are easily influenced. In a study conducted by Oskamp, ​​Kaufman and Wolterbeek, it was found that in drawing books for preschoolers, male characters play a more active and explorative role and female characters play a more passive and social role. Of course, this study completely ignores the profound effects of genetics in applying gender-specific behavior.
From birth, children can quickly learn that much of their lives have to deal with masculinity and femininity. Although many environmental factors influence gender construction, there is nothing in the biological label behavior as true or false, normal or abnormal. Although parents and teachers teach this lesson intentionally or unintentionally, children also learn through television. As has been proven, a significant cultural message source is television, perhaps the most powerful for children who watch up to an average of four hours each day. With young minds that are easily influenced, various kinds of information can help shape these children's views about the role of men and women in society.
A study conducted by Powel and Abel analyzes how sex role stereotypes in television programs such as Teletubbies and Barney are aimed at preschoolers. In their analysis, Powel and Abel found that gender messages and behaviors were present in preschool programs and these were found through eight different themes and from eight themes five of which, leadership, appearance, gender roles, occupation, and role of play, were significantly gender. Both at Barney and Teletubbies, men serve as leaders and action directors. The youngest three Teletubbies are robotically followed around the oldest who happens to be like a man. The established pattern is that men lead and women follow. On the other hand, Barney is also the male leader but he leads the children as a caring teacher, social values, "feminine" male teacher. Reconfiguring leadership as social and friendly leadership can be seen as a change from a typical male teacher but the male stereotype of male leaders is reinforced for preschoolers. The reconfiguration of male characters is also prevalent for the four remaining themes that are gender. The men in this event are taller, wearing darker clothes but occasionally wearing shorts and skirts. As for gender roles, men are generally more active while women are more social and passive. There are no programs that show men and women in non-stereotypical job roles, which show that at an early age, children are exposed to gender-specific job expectations. In playing a role when the time for story time or play time, the women play a more passive role such as arranging a picnic, while men play a more active role such as chasing a fox. These findings help explain the findings of a study conducted by Durkin and Nugent.
Durkin and Nugent examined the predictions of children aged four and five years about the sex of people who perform various activities and public works on television. Children's responses reveal strong expectations of gender stereotypes, and this is strongest in the case of masculine stereotyped activities. Also, they found that children's estimates of their own future competencies also showed stereotypical beliefs, with women more likely to resist masculine activities. Young children will indeed see the role models of feminine and masculine stereotyped sex in the media directed at them, but they will also see social skills that are affirmed for both sexes. We can conclude that the mass media have the power to affirm both non-traditional gender stereotypes and behaviors - albeit more for boys than girls.
Environmental factors and parental influences
The first major exposure to gender roles usually comes from the child's parents. Children often wear gender-specific clothing and are given gender-specific toys from birth. Parents can encourage children to participate in games typed by sex, such as girls playing with dolls and boys playing with trucks. Parents can also model the gender normative behavior, either by accident or by accident. Parental disapproval for failing to comply with gender norms and parental consent for successful compliance with these norms can serve to solidify a child's understanding of gender roles.
The influence of parents and the level of pupils that children receive may be related to their gender. In 2001, Claire Hughes found parents of young girls more likely to have a more positive overall influence and stronger discipline. Hughes also found the warmth of parents to be associated with the development of mind theory for girls, but not for boys. Hughes suggests this may have something to do with a greater tendency for women to use mind comprehension to seek emotional support, empathy, and cooperation.
Children between the ages of 3 and 6 may have differences in their level of interest in infants and practice parenting behaviors. Judith Blakemore found that when children are given the opportunity to interact with infants, boys tend to be less interested in younger children. In general, children without siblings are more likely to show interest, which may be related to baby new things. Of children with younger siblings, strong gender differences, and may be related to children who have learned a gender role by looking at the care of their siblings. No group showed a lower interest in infants than boys with siblings. Children with egalitarian parents tend to show the fewest gender differences in interest in infants.
Gender identity
It is typical for children to have a "fit" gender identity with their biological sex, but this is not always the case. Children may exhibit gender in a way that is inconsistent with the expectations of the community about sexes established at birth, sometimes classified as gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria. While some pre-school children with confused gender identity or gender dysphoria insist that their gender identity is different from their assigned gender and biological sex, others only display gender-inappropriate behavior, behavior typical of the other sex, while maintaining a gender assigned. While many self-identified cross-gender children are weakened and ultimately lost by middle children, some children continue to be in a state of gender dysphoria.
In diagnosing gender dysphoria, pediatricians and psychologists examine many different attributes of children, including identity statements (whether children declare that they want to be members of a different gender or they want to grow as members of a different gender) , cross-dressing (such as socially identifiable boys wearing skirts and hairpins, or a socially identified girl refusing to wear a dress and wanting short hair), toys and role-playing, anatomical dysphoria (in boys who identified socially, this usually manifests as a disgust on the penis, whereas in socially identified girls it usually manifests as a desire for the penis), and rough-and-fall games (socially identifiable girls are usually involved in rough games, whereas children who are socially identified avoid and ba not afraid to play rough-and-fall).
An assessment of the diagnosis of gender identity disorder in young children by Bartlett, Vasey, and Bukowski (2000) concluded that Gender Identity Disorder in children should not be considered a mental disorder, especially because of the logistics criteria in DSM IV. The four main criteria, each of which has sub-criteria, are (A) cross-gender identification, (B) discomfort with biological sex or socially determined gender roles (C) of discriminatory biological sex, and (D) ) in distress or disturbance as a result of cross-gender identity and discomfort with biological sex or gender roles prescribed by the community. Bartlett, Vasey, and Bukowski argue that to meet the requirements, a child does not need to have cross-gender identification, and because of the defect as in the criteria requirements to be diagnosed, the gender dysphoria status or gender identity disorder in children should not be considered a mental disorder.
For families of children who display the characteristics of gender identity disorder, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests talking to children about why their behavior can attract negative attention from colleagues and seek further guidance from pediatricians. In addition, cross-gender identification of children should be considered in connection with family situations.
Social impact
The social impact of imposing gender roles on children becomes very clear in life and usually follows children as they continue their development. This is most noticeable when they interact with other members of their age group. A child's friends function as archetypes and soundboards for the right way to express themselves. In his book Sex Differences in Social Behavior: Interpretation of Social Role Alice Eagly reinforces the idea that gender roles are a direct result of one's social interactions. He calls social behavior "gender-stereotyped" and says that most expectations of gender roles come from the stereotypes associated with them, such as a woman to be kind and compassionate and a man to be in control and independent. "This theory has implications for conformity to expectations of gender roles as a major source of behavior of different sexes." When a child explores things in life that they may enjoy, acceptance or criticism or their friends are very important in whether they will continue to do the activity.
Children are very likely to notice when one of their friends violates their established gender roles. As Fagot (1990) found, children have a clear response when one of their colleagues violates their established gender roles. Same-sex friends act as distributors of both awards for appropriate gender role behaviors and penalties for inappropriate gender role behaviors. Boys who prefer to play with dolls rather than trucks are five to six times more likely to be harassed by their peers than those who follow the norm. Girls who prefer to play firefighters than nurses are ignored rather than criticized. Most importantly, the Fagot study shows the effect of gender segregation in children; boys tend to more easily respond to feedback from other boys while girls also respond to feedback from other girls. By encircling themselves with same sex, children place themselves in situations where they are more prepared to accept and adapt to accepted gender roles. A study by Bandura and Bussey shows that children want to be like other people of their gender. They start labeling objects as "for girls" or "for boys" and adjusting to what is expected of them.
A study by Carol Martin (1990) showed that cross-sex behavior is generally not recommended in both sexes, although more in men. Those who exhibit cross-sex behavior are labeled as a sissy (a rather derogatory term used for boys who exhibit feminine characteristics) or tomboys (a name for women showing male characteristics, though not commensurate with a sissy). The role of gender places a constraint on what a child can allow to do, based on what their peers consider acceptable.
As children grow older and more able to understand the concept of gender and gender roles, they start spending more time with children of the same gender, which further aggravate the proliferation of gender roles. Martin and Fabes observed that at the age of two, children have begun to show a preference for interacting with children of the same gender. By the time a child is three or four years of age, most of their peer interactions are with members of the same gender. As Maccoby observed, at the age of four and a half, children spend three times as much with same-sex couples; with six and a half, that number increased to eleven times. Martin and Fabes observed that when children begin to separate themselves with gender, the activities they do are also in harmony with their chosen playmates; boys tend to choose more active and rowdy playmates while girls choose quieter, more cooperative playmates.
Children fall into these patterns with little guidance from parents or teachers; they are instinctively interested in members of the same sex and begin to adopt behaviors that are considered gender appropriate. This phenomenon is known as self-socialization and encourages interaction between children throughout their young life. This instinctive segregation pushes the gap between men and women and helps strengthen the role of gender as children continue to grow.
References
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