Citation

Hendrick J, Stange T. Early Child Res. Q. 1991; 6(4): 565-576.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0885-2006(91)90037-L

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Although a number of studies document the fact that adult males interrupt females more often than females interrupt males, less is known about whether this behavior is also true of younger boys and girls. This study examined some aspects of dominant-submissive sex role behavior in preschool children and their teachers during conversation at the snack table. It asked whether there was any difference in the number of times girls and boys interrupted their teacher, and whether there was any difference in the number of times the teacher interrupted boys or girls. In succeeding observations, researchers investigated whether girls or boys were assigned the privilege of passing snack more frequently.

In Investigation 1 nine boys and nine girls, 4 years of age, were observed talking with a variety of student teachers in a naturalistic snack setting, and checklists were kept of the number of teacher-child, child-teacher interruptions during conversation. In Investigation 2, tallies were kept of the number of times boys and girls assumed the dominant roles of distributing snacks and snack materials.

Results indicted that during conversation, boys interrupted their teachers more frequently than the girls did (p > .03). Teachers interrupted girls more frequently than they interrupted boys (p > .02). No significant differences were found in the frequency of participation by boys or girls in passing snack. Results are discussed in relation to the teacher's role in teaching dominant-submissive sex role behaviors to children.