Sex Role Preferences of Kindergarten Boys and Girls: Some Contradictory Results

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A number of researchers have found that girls tend to prefer the masculine role more than boys prefer the feminine, particularly at the kindergarten age. Several such studies have used the It Scale for Children (ITSC) although some more recent work has questioned these researches on methodological grounds, claiming that the IT figure seems to be seen as male by most children. To test this methodological point and the hypothesis that boys today have greater preference for the feminine role than girls do for the masculine, we individually administered the ITSC to 36 kindergarten children from middle-class homes, 20 boys and 16 girls, with the IT figure concealed in an envelope. During a later testing session, the ITSC was administered in the standard fashion. The data confirmed our hypothesis about the boys' and girls' preferences for roles but did not support the view that the IT figure is seen as male by most children at this age.