37 weeks) recruited from a large, urban maternity hospital in the United Kingdom. Mean gestational age at sampling was 17.2 weeks (median = 16 weeks). Total testosterone was measured by radioimmunoassay Coat-a-Count (DPC Los Angeles, CA), with intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation of 7.5% and 8.9%, respectively. Behavioral testing began when children were 4- to 5-years of age. At wave 1, 41 boys and 45 girls reported their degree of interest in 24 activities that had been shown to be culturally stereotyped as masculine or feminine using the activity sub-scale of the Preschool Occupations, Activities, and Trait measure (Personal Measure, or POAT- PM; Liben & Bigler, 2002). Interest was rated for each item on a 3-point scale, allowing scores to range from a low of 1.00 to a high of 3.00. About half the sample (27 boys; 26 girls) was available for re-testing on the POAT-PM two years later. Linear regression models were conducted to predict longitudinal changes in children’s endorsement of stereotypically masculine and feminine activities from their prenatal testosterone levels. Among girls, and unsurprisingly given their restricted range of prenatal testosterone exposure, no significant relations were evident. In boys, prenatal testosterone was not significantly related to changes in endorsement of stereotypically masculine activities, but it was marginally associated with changing endorsement of stereotypically feminine activities. Interestingly, however, greater levels of prenatal testosterone predicted greater increases (rather than decreases) in the endorsement of feminine activities, F(1, 25) = 3.46, p = .08, PRE = .122. The data suggest the continued need to conduct research with larger samples over longer periods to explore the links between biological and behavioral factors. Content is hosted by All Academic Inc, a leading provider of online hosting and software solutions for academic conferences supporting submission, peer review, scheduling, invitaions, volunteers, scheduling, web-based programs, advanced bulk email, custom workflows, and more for conferences of scholarly societies since 1999." />
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Poster #217 - Does Prenatal Testosterone Predict Children's Changing Interests in Gender Differentiated Activities?

Fri, April 7, 10:00 to 11:15am, Austin Convention Center, Exhibit Hall 4

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