Gender, adult structuring of activities, and social behavior in middle childhood

The study was designed to test the relations among gender, adult-provided activity structure, and social behavior for children in middle childhood. Adult-provided structure was defined as verbally presented rules, guidelines, suggestions, and modeling. Children aged 7-11 years attended a 1-week summer day camp in which activities characterized by high or low adult structure were available. As predicted, girls spent more time in highly structured activities, whereas boys spent more time in low-structure activities. Once in high-structure activities, however, both genders displayed high rates of adult-directed bids for recognition, leadership attempts, and compliance and low rates of peer interaction. In low-structure activities, children directed high rates of leadership and other social behaviors to same-sex peers. Children who chose high-structure activities most often were also most likely to interact with adults in those activities. Those who chose low-structure activities showed the highest rates of interaction with male peers. Sex-typed personality attributes were not related to activity choice. The results are interpreted in a framework encompassing the interactions of "person" attributes, environmental variables, and behavior.