Chapter 3
Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence
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Children’s Knowledge and
Beliefs about Gender
Distinguishing between females and males
From birth, infants are surrounded by cues signifying gender
Infants and toddlers are able to distinguish males and females
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Children’s Knowledge and
Beliefs about Gender
Gender identity and self-perceptions
By age 2 or 3, children can label their own gender
Children begin to view their own gender more favorably than
the other gender
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Children’s Knowledge and
Beliefs about Gender
Gender stereotypes
Young children (2 years old) associate specific objects and
activities with females and males
Gender stereotypes for toys, clothing, activities, occupations,
etc. develop by age 3
Gendered personality stereotypes demonstrated later than
other gender stereotypes
Gender stereotypes are rigid between ages 5 and 7, then
become more flexible until adolescence
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Gender-Related Activities
and Interests
Physical performance and sports
Girls and boys similar in motor skills in preschool and
elementary years
Gender differences in motor skills favoring boys increasingly
pronounced from childhood through adolescence
Differential opportunities
Hormonal changes
Social pressures
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Gender-Related Activities
and Interests
Toys and play
Generally differentiated by gender
Girls: dolls, cooking sets, dress-up, soft toys
Boys: vehicles, sports equipment, tools
Girls more likely than boys to choose neutral or cross-gender toys
and activities
Different play environments
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Gender-Related Activities
and Interests
Gender segregation
Children prefer playing with same-gender children by age 2
This preference is especially strong in middle childhood
Reasons?
Girls tend to dislike rough, aggressive play
Boys unresponsive to girls’ polite suggestions
Shared preference for gender-typed toys and activities
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Influences on Gender
Development
Socialization: The process by which each
generation passes along to children the
knowledge, beliefs, and skills that constitute
the culture of the social group
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Influences on Gender
Development
Parents
Provide children with distinctive clothing, room furnishings,
toys
Foster gender stereotypes through conversation
Assign chores based on gender
Speak and act differently with girls than with boys
Are role models for their children
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Influences on Gender
Development
Siblings
Older siblings important source of gender socialization
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Influences on Gender
Development
School
Gender-biased social structure
Differential treatment in the classroom
Boys called on more than girls
Girls more reprimanded for calling out than boys
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Influences on Gender
Development
Peers
Exert strong pressures on one another
Gender atypical behavior less tolerated among boys than
among girls
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Influences on Gender
Development
Media
Females and males portrayed in stereotyped ways
Television and gender stereotypes
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Puberty
Puberty: Period of life during which sexual organs
mature and the ability to reproduce emerges
Primary sex characteristics
Secondary sex characteristics
Menarche: the first menstrual period
Changes in onset over time and across cultures
Feelings about menstruation
Advertising and cultural pressures
Effects of negative attitude toward menstruation
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Puberty
Gender differences in puberty
Girls finish puberty about two years before boys
Girls’ adolescent growth spurt starts about age 9, and age 11
for boys
Girls gain more fatty tissue than boys; boys gain more muscle
tissue than girls
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Puberty
Early and late maturation in girls
Early maturing girls
May have feelings of self-consciousness and shame
Confronted with challenging sexual expectations
Associate with older peers
As well adjusted as other girls by the end of high school
Late maturing girls
May have low social status during middle school
Often dissatisfied with appearance
May end up more popular and more satisfied with
appearance than early maturing girls
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Psychosocial Development in
Adolescence
Identity: Deciding who we are and what we
want to make of our lives
Importance of individuation may be more relevant for boys
than girls (
Identity development requires interplay between
separateness and connectedness
Adolescent females and males take similar paths in quest for
identity
Importance of extended kinship network for identity
development of girls of color
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Psychosocial Development in
Adolescence
Self-Esteem: Sense of worth or value that
people attach to themselves
High self-esteem associated with good psychological and
physical health
Self-esteem diminishes for both genders in early adolescence
Girls’ show lower self-esteem than boys
African-American girls have higher self-esteem than
other girls
Girls more dissatisfied with appearance than boys
School may undermine girls’ perception of their
competence
Girls become more acutely aware of sexism during
adolescence
“Loss of voice”
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Psychosocial Development in
Adolescence
Gender intensification: Increasing divergence in
gender-related behaviors and attitudes of girls
and boys that emerges in adolescence
Physical changes of puberty accentuate gender differences in
appearance
Adults apply increasing pressure on girls to be “feminine”
Dating encourages increase in gender-stereotypical behavior
Gender intensification starts to decrease by middle to late
adolescence
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Psychosocial Development in
Adolescence
Body image
Influenced by cultural ideal of extreme thinness for females
Self-objectification: Girls and women in Western culture
internalize society’s view of body as sexual object to be
looked at and evaluated
Girls much more concerned with body weight and
appearance than boys around the world
Compared to boys, during adolescence girls:
Have less positive body image
Are less satisfied with their weight
Are more likely to be dieting
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Psychosocial Development in
Adolescence
Body image, continued
Gender differences in body image increased since the mid-20th century
Increasing emphasis on thinness as ideal for females
Pressure from family and friends to be thin can undermine girls’ body image
Black women more satisfied with their bodies and less concerned with their
weight than White women
Less emphasis on thinness in Black culture than White culture
Women of color still more concerned about their weight than males of
color
Lesbians have higher body image than heterosexual women, but still have
more weight concerns than heterosexual men
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