No abstract

The present study explored the relative importance of gender role identity, gender role attitudes, and biological gender in determining the intensity of anger, disgust, hurt, envy, fear, pity, and liking reported toward same-and opposite-sex children. Sixty male and 60 female 6-12-year-old children reported on the intensity of emotions that a hypothetical child would experience toward same-and opposite-sex children in various situations. The Children's Personal Attitudes Questionnaire, the Children's Attitudes toward Women Scale, and a self-reported toy preference measure were used to assess gender role identity and attitudes. The results indicated that girls were more angry at males than at females, and that both sexes tended to be more hurt and disgusted by opposite-sex than by same-sex children. Girls also tended to report more fear than did boys, and both sexes tended to report more fear of males than of females. Most importantly, gender role identity and attitudes accounted for more of the variance in predicting the quality of reported emotions than did biological gender. Biological gender predicted to only one feeling: pity toward males, after the variance accounted for by the gender ~This research was supported by a Gender Roles Grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. We are grateful for their support. The authors wish to thank the parents, teachers, and children in the Milton, Norwood, and Watertown school systems, and especially Frank Guiliano, Rod Smith, and Daniel O'Connor. We are also grateful for the computer and statistical expertise of Robert H. Harrison, John Houlihan, and Lance S. Davidow, and for the editorial comments made by Robert H. Harrison.

Route learning by kindergarten and grade 2 children was assessed via a slide presentation, videotape, or walking the route with a guide. The children viewed the route only once, and were then asked to retrace it in the same medium from start to finish or in the reverse. They were shown a panoramic view at seven choice points along the route, and when retracing were asked to point to the correct path at these locations. Older children were less likely to err than younger children, reversing the route was more difficult than repeating it in the forward direction. There was very little difference in overall performance in slide and videotape media, but significantly fewer errors occurred while walking, especially when children were asked to indicate their way back to the start. Methodologically, these findings suggest caution should be exercised in generalizing from studies of children's spatial performance using bounded planar materials. Theoretically, these findings support accounts of route learning that ascribe a fundamental role to self-produced exploration and its concurrent spatio-temporal feedback (e.g., Gibson, 1966,1979).