Asynchronous Development of Gender Understanding in Preschool Children

Abstract

EATON, WARREN 0., and VoN BARGEN, DONNA. Asynchronous Development of Gender Understanding in Preschool Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 1020-1027. Development through a sequence of gender understanding was thought to be asynchronous, with a given level of attainment achieved first when self was the referent, second when a same-sex other was the referent, and last when an opposite-sex other was the referent. 204 preschool children completed 3 gender-understanding questionnaires differing in the referent depicted. Components of gender understanding were assessed on the basis of judgments and, in the case of pseudoversus true constancy attainment, on the basis of judgments plus explanations. Sex of examiner, sex of child, and test-retest effects did not influence attainment, and longitudinal change over an 8-month interval was observed in the children's responses to the self-referent. The predicted referent-related asynchrony was observed for the judgment-based components, for which understanding appears to follow an orderly sequence with attainment at each step occurring in a self, same-sex, opposite-sex order. No referent-related asynchrony was apparent in the transition from pseudoconstancy to true constancy.

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