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Influence and involvement in children's discourse: age, gender, and partner effects
1Program in Developmental Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz 95064.
Child Development
|August 1, 1991
Summary
Children's communication with peers shows more similarities than differences across genders. However, gender-typed talk increases with age and in same-gender play groups.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Gender Studies
Background:
- Understanding children's peer interactions is crucial for social development.
- Previous research has explored gender influences on communication, but findings are varied.
- The interplay of age, gender, and social context in children's discourse requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how speaker gender, partner gender, and age level influence children's discourse patterns.
- To identify similarities and differences in communication between boys and girls.
- To explore the impact of same-gender versus mixed-gender peer interactions.
Main Methods:
- 138 children were paired with same- or other-gender peers at early (5 years) and middle (7 years) childhood levels.
- Children engaged in a 10-minute puppet play activity.
- Speech acts were coded into four categories: collaborative, controlling, obliging, and withdrawing.
Main Results:
- Overall, girls' and boys' communication patterns were more alike than distinct.
- Significant gender-related differences in communication emerged with medium to large effect sizes.
- Gender-typed communication was more prevalent in middle childhood compared to early childhood.
- Gender-typed communication was more common in same-gender dyads than in mixed-gender dyads.
Conclusions:
- While children's peer communication shows broad similarities, gender does play a role, particularly in older children and same-gender interactions.
- Developmental and contextual factors significantly shape gendered social behavior in children's discourse.
- Future research should continue to explore these nuanced developmental and contextual influences on gender and social behavior.
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