Gender Identity in Early Childhood

Abstract

Background. Some authors indicate that the origin of gender identity in children is between two and three years old. This research report presents evidence against this affirmation based on Cultural–historical Psychology about the acquisition of consciousness through language as a process that begins from early childhood and ends in adolescence.
 Objective. (1) Characterize concepts about gender identity that have children in early childhood. (2) To compare differences and similarities of the concept of gender identity in children of different ages.
 Design. The procedure used was the classifying pictures method adapted for this study. We evaluated 32 children from one to five years old about the acquisition of gender identity through a qualitative analysis of data.
 Results. It was found that children of two and three years old group images by gender stereotypes, while those of four and five are incorporating other criteria such as shape and color.
 Conclusion. This happens for two reasons: first, the incorporation of the gender culture is a complex process and second, the school promotes a classification system that allows to order the worldbased on criteria other than gender.
 Keywords: concepts, gender identity, early childhood, cultural–historical psychology, Mexico

How Teacher’s Gender Influence Student’s Gender Identity in Early Childhood

“…Children may predict how others will respond to them by studying how others behave around persons of the same sex as them. Children quickly learn that when other people of their gender behave similarly, they might get comparable results (Cervantes, 2018). So, it can be said that the results of this study are in line with the results of previous studies which held that children aged five to six years or commonly referred to as late early childhood could identify their gender well.…”

“…Research about gender identity in early childhood shows that children aged three years and under have not been able to identify gender through tests conducted, while children aged three years and over have begun to be able to identify gender using characters that belong to a certain gender. This research also reveals that schools play a role in shaping and strengthening children's gender identities (Cervantes, 2018). Male and female teachers in schools have their respective roles, as male teachers are more related to work that requires physical labor and as a substitute for fathers at school.…”

“…This study focuses on the development of gender identity in children between the ages of five and seven years since most children establish an awareness of gender constancy between the ages of five and seven years (Cervantes, 2018). Gender identification focuses on teaching kids about gender labels for both them and others, as well as how this component of who they are endures across time and in many contexts.…”

“…The ability to recognize gender identity is formed when a person at three years old and is strengthened in subsequent ages up to seven years old (Cervantes, 2018). It shows that children can identify their respective genders from the level of early childhood education or playgroup and kindergarten in the Indonesian education system.…”

Faktor Minat Laki-Laki Memilih Profesi Guru PAUD

“…Seorang anak akan menyadari bahwa dirinya adalah laki-laki atau perempuan salah satunya dipengaruhi oleh apa yang dia amati. Pemahaman gender atau kemampuan anak mengidentifikasi gender apa yang ia miliki terbentuk sejak anak berusia tiga tahun, sedangkan usia dibawah tiga tahun belum mampu memahami dan membedakan gender yang dimiliki (Cervantes 2018). Kemampuan ini akan terus berkembang hingga usia lima tahun (Polderman et al 2018).…”