Poster #194 - Children’s awareness of stereotypes that link gender and social status.

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Gender stereotypes are in society and how they influence the way we think about males and females. Specifically, these gender stereotypes set expectations for ways that males and females are supposed to think, look, and act. Although stereotypes about gender roles are apparent from a young age, little work has shown whether children are aware of one particularly important gender stereotype – the belief that males and females differ in their social status, in a way that gives males the privileged and higher status position. Tendencies to predict the status of others based on their gender are widespread and have far-reaching consequences on social cognition and behavior, but little work has examined the development of these beliefs.

The present studies (N = 41) examined 3- to 11-year-old children to determine the developmental trajectories of children's use of race and gender to predict social status in early childhood. The social status measure used in this study was adapted from Mandalaywala, Tai, & Rhodes, (in prep). Participants were introduced to a rope with 6 notches that could be used to assign status, specifically social power, to target stimuli. After assessing comprehension, participants were asked to place picture cards of White, Black, East Asian, and Southeast Asian boys and girls on the rope one at a time. There were 4 trials, and each trial displayed one race matched boy-girl pair (e.g., East Asian boy and East Asian girl). Thus, participants were not asked to rank a boy-girl pair of differing race (e.g., a White boy and a Black girl). The order in which they ranked each pair (either girl first or boy) was counterbalanced.

Results suggest that the development of social status awareness is dependent on participant gender and age. Linear regression analyses revealed an interaction between participant gender and age, such that male participants showed developmental differences when ranking girl stimuli: male participants ranked girls higher in status with age t(40) = 2.746, p = .009. On the other hand, correlation analyses showed a positive relationship with the way female participants ranked boys and girls, where females who ranked boys higher in status also tended to rank girls higher in status as well, and vice versa, r = .732, p = .001. There were no age differences in how female participants ranked boy or girl stimuli. Thus, results from the current study indicate that awareness of stereotypes linking gender with social status may depend on participant characteristics (e.g., gender and age).

Authors

• Christine Tai, University of Hawaii
  Presenting Author

• Kristin Pauker, University of Hawaii
  Non-Presenting Author