Vocational development research and interventions have focused primarily on adolescents and young adults. The lack of attention to career development antecedents in children has led to a serious neglect of this period of life when the foundation is laid for career choices and outcomes in later life. A harmful by-product is the frequent preclusion…

Middle-class children, divided by age, sex, and the presence/absence of younger siblings in the family, were studied to assess their interest in babies. The findings support MacDonald's contention that birth order effects are best understood as distinctive for each sex, especially when the behaviors investigated are sex-related. (Author/GC)

This study was designed to investigate male and female interest in babies at middle childhood and adolescence. A total of 64 middle class subjects (half 8- to 9-years-olds, half 14- to 15-year-olds) were observed individually in a 6-minute waiting room situation with an unfamiliar 6- to 10-month-old baby and mother (confederate). While the subject…

Examined gender-typed behavior and interests in 2- to 10-year-old girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and in unaffected girls matched for age. Found that, compared with unaffected girls, girls with CAH were more interested in masculine toys and less interested in feminine toys and were more likely to report having male playmates and…

Examined sex-typing in child personality, interests, and activities as function of traditionality of parents' gender role attitudes and sex composition of sibling dyads. Found that sex-typing was most evident in children's interests and activities. Differences in children's sex-typing as a function of fathers' attitudes and sibling sex…

The literature on children's acquisition of sex-typed knowledge, preference, and behavior is reviewed, and a matrix of sex-typing constructs and sex-typed content areas is offered. Two major themes are discussed. The first theme concerns the importance of activities, interests, and peer associations in the early acquisition of sex-typing…

Analysis of 232 elementary school children's questions posed to nontraditional workers reveals that gender schemata are important aspects of a child's thought processes. Common characteristics of their questions are identified. Boys and girls fill part of their gender schema with like kinds of information about what is gender-appropriate behavior.…

Examined gender differences in 514 children's competence and value beliefs from first through twelfth grade, and the relation of these trends to initial differences in parents' perceptions of children's ability. Found that gender differences in competence and value beliefs related to sports and mathematics. Gender differences in competence beliefs…

Examined whether 6- and 11-year-olds' beliefs about job status and job interests are affected by gendered nature of jobs. Found that children gave higher status ratings to masculine jobs and expressed greater interest in jobs culturally associated with their own sex. Older children rated novel jobs portrayed with males as having higher status than…

This article reports a study in which a sample of 89 White and 34 Spanish-language heritage children from ages 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 from the lower- and middle-classes responded to two cognitive measures (classification skill and gender knowledge), three verbal sex-typing measures (occupations, toys, and peer behaviors), and a behavioral sex-typing…