TY - JOUR PY - 1981// TI - Gender constancy and the effects of sex-typed televised toy commercials JO - Child development A1 - Ruble, D. N. A1 - Balaban, T. A1 - Cooper, J. SP - 667 EP - 673 VL - 52 IS - 2 N2 - The present study represented a cognitive-developmental analysis of the effects of televised, sex-stereotypic information on children's behavior and attitudes toward toy play. The subjects were 50 male and 50 female 4-6-year-olds divided into high and low gender-constancy levels. As the children watched a cartoon, they either saw a commercial of a gender-neutral toy that showed 2 boys or 2 girls playing with the toy, or they saw no commercial (control). As predicted, only the high gender-constant children were differentially affected by the sex-role information in the different commercial conditions. Children at this stage who saw opposite-sex children playing with the toy avoided spending time with the toy and stated verbally that the toy was more appropriate for an opposite-sex sibling, relative to children in the 2 other conditions. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of sex-role development and in terms of the role that television may play in maintaining sex stereotypes and sex-typed behavior.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0009-3920 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -