Citation

Matthews WS. Sex Roles 1981; 7(10): 979-987.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00288499

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The naturalistic observation of role-taking behavior in 90 spontaneously occurring (i.e., unelicited) fantasy play episodes of 16 4-year-old children in same-sex paired interaction revealed (1) a differential perception of male, female, parental, and conjugal roles, particularly in terms of competence; (2) the accuracy, depth, and breadth of their sex-role portrayals; and (3) a preference for same-sex role-play. The assimilative and accommodative functions of roleplay in the early acquisition of sex role are discussed, as well as the degree of decentration required for the roleplay activities to occur.