Can Princesses Be Powerful? A Quasi-Experimental Study Examining Children's Perceptions of Princesses and the Self.

Children's gender schematic cognitions guide their attention, affinities, and behaviors, often narrowing their opportunities. The goal of the present study is to examine how children's exposure to animated Disney princesses modeling agentic behaviors (such as being a leader) alters children's gender schematic perceptions of princesses' characteristics, and if this exposure impacts children's perceptions of their own gender-typed qualities. Interviews with 60 children from the northeast region of the United States (Mage = 4.5 years old) at the beginning and end of six weeks indicate that, as hypothesized, children's perceptions of princesses and themselves became less gender schematic after cumulative exposure to animated videos depicting princesses modeling agentic behaviors. Children's perceptions of princesses' agency and their own agency increased throughout the study, asserting that with exposure to nontraditional gender-typed characters, children begin to see themselves as less gender-typed. These findings provide new insights into the role of early children's media exposure in shaping children's gender cognitions.

Princesses, Princes, and Superheroes: Children's Gender Cognitions and Fictional Characters.

The goal of the present study was to identify whether children recognize the gender stereotypes prevalent within the increasingly popular princess, prince, and superhero characters. Interviews with 126 children from the northeast region of the Unites States (3-11 years old) indicated that children recognized the gender-typed personality traits of princesses, princes, and superheroes, with older children holding more gender-typed cognitions about the characters. Children's own-schemas (i.e., beliefs that apply to themselves) and superordinate schemas (i.e., include beliefs about others' preferences and behaviors) for the characters were mostly gender typed and congruent. Older children gender-typed princesses as for girls more than younger children, whereas older children considered superheroes to be for boys and girls more than younger children did. Older children also considered the characters to be for them less, potentially reducing the negative implications of exposure to gender-typed messages associated with the characters. Individual differences exist in children's perceptions of these fictional characters, with children's own androgyny being positively correlated with their perceptions of princesses' androgyny levels. Further, girls were more flexible in their stereotyping of princesses, noting they were "for girls and boys" more. The authors discuss the results' practical and theoretical implications.

Halloween Costume Choices: Reflections of Gender Development in Early Childhood.

The author examined whether preschoolers' Halloween costume choices reflect their gender development. The sample consisted of 110 (53 boys, 57 girls) infant through preschool-aged participants, and 1 parent of each child. Both observational methodologies and parent-report surveys were used to assess the gender-typed nature of children's Halloween costumes, information about the Halloween costume choice process, and about the children's gender development. Boys' costumes were more masculine and girls' costumes were more feminine. Younger children's costumes were consistently less gender typed than the older children's costumes were. Children whose parents chose their Halloween costumes for them had Halloween costumes that were less gender typed than did children who were involved in the Halloween costume decision-making process. Moreover, children's gender-typed play and desire to wear gender-stereotyped clothes were related to the gender stereotyped nature of their Halloween costume. Unexpectedly, gender typicality, a dimension of gender identity, was not related to children's Halloween costume choices. Overall, the findings support that children's Halloween costume choice is an indicator of children's gender development processes.

Children's Gender-Typed Toy Interests: Does Propulsion Matter?

Children's toy play is at the foundation of child development. However, gender differentiation in early play experiences may result in gender differences in cognitive abilities, social interactions, and vocational choices. We investigated gender-typing of toys and toys' propulsive properties (e.g., wheels, forward motion) as possible factors impacting children's toy interests, perceptions of other children's interests, and children's actual toy choices during free play. In Studies 1 and 2, 82 preschool children (42 boys, 40 girls; mean age = 4.90 years) were asked to report their interest and perceptions of other children's interests in toys. In Study 1, masculine, feminine, and neutral toys with and without propulsive properties were presented. Children reported greater interest in gender-typed toys and neutral toys compared to cross-gender-typed toys. In Study 2, unfamiliar, neutral toys with and without propulsive properties were presented. Propulsive properties did not affect children's interest across both studies. Study 3 was an observational study that assessed toy preferences among 42 preschool children (21 males, 21 females, mean age = 4.49 years) during a play session with masculine, feminine, and neutral toys with and without propulsive properties. Gender-typed toy preferences were less apparent than expected, with children showing high interest in neutral toys, and girls playing with a wide variety of masculine, feminine, and neutral toys. Gender differences in interest for toys with propulsion properties were not evident. Overall, gender differences in children's interest in toys as a function of propulsion properties were not found in the three experiments within this study.

Sex-typed personality traits and gender identity as predictors of young adults' career interests.

Gender segregation of careers is still prominent in the U.S. workforce. The current study was designed to investigate the role of sex-typed personality traits and gender identity in predicting emerging adults' interests in sex-typed careers. Participants included 586 university students (185 males, 401 females). Participants reported their sex-typed personality traits (masculine and feminine traits), gender identities (gender typicality, contentment, felt pressure to conform, and intergroup bias), and interests in sex-typed careers. Results indicated both sex-typed personality traits and gender identity were important predictors of young adults' career interests, but in varying degrees and differentially for men and women. Men's sex-typed personality traits and gender typicality were predictive of their masculine career interests even more so when the interaction of their masculine traits and gender typicality were considered. When gender typicality and sex-typed personality traits were considered simultaneously, gender typicality was negatively related to men's feminine career interests and gender typicality was the only significant predictor of men's feminine career interests. For women, sex-typed personality traits and gender typicality were predictive of their sex-typed career interests. The level of pressure they felt to conform to their gender also positively predicted interest in feminine careers. The interaction of sex-typed personality traits and gender typicality did not predict women's career interests more than when these variables were considered as main effects. Results of the multidimensional assessment of gender identity confirmed that various dimensions of gender identity played different roles in predicting career interests and gender typicality was the strongest predictor of career interests.

Congruence between gender stereotypes and activity preference in self-identified tomboys and non-tomboys.

The major goal was to examine a central tenet of cognitive approaches to gender development, namely, that congruence exists between personal gender stereotypes and behaviors. Item-by-item comparisons of girls' stereotypes about activities and their preferences for activities were conducted, for both girls who claimed to be tomboys and those who did not. Congruence was expected for all girls, but because of their gender non-normative interests, tomboys may exhibit less congruence. A secondary goal was to examine factors that might influence congruence, specifically, whether tomboys develop more inclusive stereotypes and develop greater understanding of stereotype variability. Participants included 112 girls (7-12 years old, M age=9). Girls were interviewed about their activity preferences, beliefs about girls' and boys' activity preferences, understanding variability of stereotypes, and identification as tomboys. Tomboys (30% of the sample) and non-tomboys did not differ in their liking of or in the number of liked feminine activities. However, tomboys showed more interest in masculine activities than non-tomboys. Tomboys and non-tomboys did not differ in stereotype inclusiveness, although tomboys showed a trend toward more inclusive stereotypes. Both groups showed high levels of congruence between stereotypes and preferences. Congruence was stronger for nontomboys (14 times more likely to exhibit responses congruent with stereotypes vs. incongruent ones), as compared to tomboys who were four times more likely to exhibit responses congruent with stereotypes versus incongruent ones. Implications of these findings for cognitive approaches to gender development are discussed.

Continuity and Change in Early School Engagement: Predictive of Children's Achievement Trajectories from First to Eighth Grade?

Premises about the effects of early engagement on achievement were investigated with 383 children who were followed from ages 5.5 to 13.5. Change and continuity in behavioral (cooperative-resistant classroom participation) and emotional (school liking-avoidance) engagement were assessed during Grades 1-3 and examined within variable- and person-oriented analyses as antecedents of scholastic progress from Grades 1-8. Findings corroborated the premises that change as well as continuity in early school engagement is predictive of children's long-term scholastic growth. Compared to children who participated cooperatively in classrooms, those who became increasingly resistant across the primary grades displayed lesser scholastic growth. Among children who manifested enduring engagement patterns, those who exhibited a combination of higher behavioral and emotional engagement across the primary grades made greater academic progress than those who displayed lower levels of these two forms of engagement. Overall, the results of this investigation were consistent with the school engagement hypothesis, and extend what is known about the predictive contributions of early school engagement to children's achievement.