The influence of center-based care on young children's gender development
Introduction
A friend's grandson returned from his first day at a childcare center. She asked him if he had learned anything. “Oh, yes!” he responded, “I learned that I am a boy, and I get to play with the boys' group.”
Outside the home, a large portion of children's gender socialization might occur in center-based care settings. In fact, in 2016, close to 49% of U.S. children ages 3–5 (nearly 4 million) were enrolled in center-based care, a number that stands in stark contrast to those only receiving parental care (27%) (NCES, 2016). When young children first enter center-based care, they may have little awareness of distinctions between boys and girls. Yet, these settings provide an opportunity to learn about gender as children may be, for the first time, in the presence of large numbers of boys and girls, as well as gender-typed toys and activities. Therefore, center-based care enrollment might speed up or heighten gender-typed behaviors (e.g. same-gender-friendships) and knowledge (e.g. gender self-categorization). Moreover, previous research has suggested that early gender-typing can have long-term consequences spanning multiple domains, such as differential academic performance and success in school, discrimination in the workplace, mental health implications in adolescence and adulthood and, on a greater macro-scale, general societal inequality between genders (for a review, see Leaper, 2015; Mehta & Strough, 2009). Considering the substantial number of young children enrolled in center-based care in the United States, as well as the lasting implications of early childhood gender-typing patterns, there is a need to investigate whether and how this relatively unexplored context may influence the timing and level of children's understanding of gender as well as the trajectory of their subsequent gender attitudes and behaviors.
Early and consistent experience in center-based care has indeed been shown to influence children in areas outside of gender development. Some studies found that children in center-based care were rated as higher in externalizing behaviors and lower in self-control (e.g., Huston, Bobbitt, & Bentley, 2015), whereas other studies reported that children in center-based care demonstrated higher language and cognitive skills relative to peers not in center-based care (e.g., NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2002). However, to our knowledge, no study to date has examined whether center-based care enrollment influences gender development patterns, especially in terms of associations between gender-related center-based care experiences and children's subsequent levels of gender-typing and knowledge. The present study thus aims to address this gap.
Section snippets
Theories of early gender development and the influence of center-based care
Various theories of gender development imply that center-based care experiences would promote children's expansion and establishment of gender-related knowledge and behavior. Some theories focus on the child's own construction of gender, the idea that children are active processors of social category information (e.g., Martin & Ruble, 2004). Other theories focus on the socialization agents (e.g., teachers and peers) and settings and microsystems (e.g., the structure of a childcare center) that
Consequences of center-based care settings for gender development
Taken together, the processes described above would lead to predictions that experiences in center-based care would promote increased gender-typing, especially in young children. Despite a body of research documenting the prevalence of various forms of gender socialization in center-based care (Bigler & Liben, 2007; Chick et al., 2002), surprisingly, there are, to our knowledge, no studies directly examining whether enrollment in center-based care, and age of exposure to center-based care,
Current study
Although previous research has documented the gender-typed nature of center-based care, we do not yet know whether center-based care enrollment actually influences young children's gender-typing. The present study begins this quest with a naturalistic examination of whether children enrolled in center-based care are more gender-typed than those who are not, while also considering longitudinal variations. We proceeded from secondary data consisting of interviews with and observations of
Participants
Data used for the current study were drawn from a longitudinal study focused on the role of culture and context in shaping school readiness among ethnically diverse families living in a large, urban U.S. city in the Northeast. Participants were mothers (Mage = 29.06, SD = 5.64) and their children (N = 232; 112 girls, 120 boys) from Dominican American (N = 83; 36 girls, 47 boys), African American (N = 77; 35 girls, 42 boys) and Mexican American (N = 72; 41 girls, 31 boys) backgrounds.
Results
In the first section, we report the association between age of center-based care enrollment and children's gender-typed behavior. In the second section, we report the relation between age of center-based care enrollment and children's gender-related knowledge and identity. Measures that were administered at 3 or more time points (mother-reported same-gender-friendships; mother-reported gender-typed play; observed gender-typed appearance) were analyzed using multilevel modeling, which allowed us
Influence of center-based care on children's gender-typed behaviors
Estimated marginal means and standard errors for multilevel modeling analyses by wave and center-based care group (i.e., age of center-based care enrollment) are reported in Table 2. We expected children with earlier center-based care timing to show higher gender-typed behaviors.
Discussion
In a longitudinal study involving multiple gender-related measures we investigated whether or not enrollment in center-based care is associated with the development of gender-typed behavior and knowledge in young children. Overall, results suggest that age of center-based care entry may influence the timing and level of some aspects of gender development, such as same-gender-friendships, but not all aspects, such as gender stereotype knowledge.
Conclusion
As the majority of children between ages 3–5 are enrolled in center-based care (NCES, 2016), the social consequences of such contexts are becoming increasingly relevant to investigate. The present study is the first to explore whether center-based care enrollment is related to children's gender development using a longitudinal design with an ethnically diverse sample. Our findings suggest that the timing of center-based care enrollment is indeed associated with the development of young
Declarations of Competing Interest
We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome.
Acknowledgments
This work was conducted at the New York University's Center for Research on Culture, Development, and Education (CRCDE), within the Department of Applied Psychology at the New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation [grant numbers 021859, 0721383] to Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda. We thank our colleagues and staff members at the CRCDE, as well as the mothers and children who participated in our
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