Research in developmental psychology on gender and relationships: Reflections on the past and looking into the future

Abstract

Recent historical trends and current directions in the study of children's gender and relationships are reviewed using Maccoby and Jacklin's (1974) The Psychology of Sex Differences as a reference point. Since the publication of Maccoby and Jacklin's review, researchers have questioned the extent and the magnitude of gender differences in social behaviour as well as the degree to which parents play a primary role in gender development. More attention is now paid to the impact of gender-segregated peer groups and other social relationships (e.g., friendships, romantic relationships) as well as cognitive-motivational and biological processes. Furthermore, the role of the larger social-structural context is addressed in studies of sexism and gender bias during childhood and adolescence. Recommendations for future research are offered.

Gender Differences in the Dream Content of Children and Adolescents: The UK Library Study

“…Girls reported dreams more often than boys -replicating a previous study eliciting reports of bad dreams (Schredl & Pallmer, 1998) and also reflecting the heightened dream recall frequency found in girls (Schredl & Reinhard, 2008). Girls also reported longer dream reports which have also been reported previously in children/adolescents (Avila-White et al, 1999;Schredl & Pallmer, 1998;Strauch, 2005) and adults (Schredl, Paul, Lahl, & Göritz, 2010-2011. In this respect the present findings seem to be valid as they are in line with the literature.…”

“…Whereas Hall (1984) speculated that the Oedipus complex might be an explanation (the importance of the father as a rival regarding the love of his mother) of this gender difference, several studies (Paul & Schredl, 2012;Schredl, Loßnitzer, et al, 1998) indicate that the waking-life pattern of social contacts serve as an explanation for this gender differencein line with the continuity hypothesis of dreaming (Schredl, 2003). Empirical research (e.g., Leaper, 2011) clearly indicates that same-sex peers are preferred, especially by boys and, thus, the preponderance of male dream characters in dreams of boys would also be explained by their waking-life social contact pattern. The balanced ratio of male and female characters in dream reports of girls might be affected by the preponderance of male occupations like policeman, bus driver (Strauch & Meier, 1996) but systematic research in this area is relatively scarce.…”

Emotion Understanding, Social Competence and School Achievement in Children from Primary School in Portugal

“…Research carried out with adolescents find greater levels of emotion understanding and social skills among girls than among boys ( Welsh et al, 2001 ; Brackett et al, 2004 ; Oberle et al, 2014 ). This may be because as children grow up, intergrupal processes may contribute to the development of preconception and discrimination based on gender ( Leaper, 2011 ). Recent studies show that restrictive gender roles have consequences on girls’ academic achievements ( Brown and Leaper, 2010 ) and on boy’s socioemotional development ( Oransky and Fisher, 2009 ).…”

Evaluations of moral and conventional intergroup transgressions

“…This is especially important as research suggests that in early childhood settings, children play predominantly with same-gendered peers (Leaper, 2011;Martin et al, 2013). They suggest that parents and educators should pay particular attention to the messages they communicate, especially to young children, about the importance of treating all children equitably.…”