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A Study on Children's Gender-Role Flexibility  

Kim Jung-Min (Department of Child Development and Education, Myongji University)
Publication Information
Journal of Families and Better Life / v.23, no.4, 2005 , pp. 91-100 More about this Journal
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the developmental trends in children's gender-role flexibility across different areas of gender-role concept(appearance, activities, occupations, personality trails). Participants included 74 children(1st, 3rd, 5th graders). They were interviewed on a series of 16 pictures depicting cross-gender characteristics. Analyses revealed that (a) flexibility reached its peak at around age 8, which then remained the same except in appearance, (b) girls showed higher flexibility than boys except in occupations, (c) children showed the lowest flexibility in appearance and the highest in occupations, (d) children showed the lowest flexibility toward a male target child with cross-gender characteristic, and (e) children's justifications for flexibility were varied according to the situations. The results suggest that children's gender-role flexibility is influenced by age, sex, areas of gender-role concept, and target persons.
Keywords
gender-role flexibility; gender-role stereotype; areas of gender role concept;
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