The influence of center-based care on young children's gender development

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2020.101157Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Earlier center-based care enrollment relates to earlier and more same-gender-friendships.

  • Earlier center-based care enrollment relates to greater avoidance of other gender-typed play.

  • Higher appearance rigidity among children enrolling in center-based care at younger ages.

  • Earlier center-based care enrollment relates to boys' gender self-categorization age 3.

  • Center-based care timing was not related to children's knowledge of gender stereotypes.

Abstract

Many U.S. children spend a significant amount of time in center-based care prior to entering preschool. Previous theory and research would suggest center-based care settings offer important opportunities for gender socialization as children here are surrounded by multiple sources of gender-typing information (e.g. peers, adults, toys and activities). The present longitudinal study examined whether center-based care enrollment status influences level and timing of children's gender-typed behaviors (same-gender friendships, play and appearance), and knowledge (self-categorization and stereotyping) between the ages of 2–5. Participants were children and their mothers of low-income, urban backgrounds (N = 232; African American, Mexican American, and Dominican American). Overall, children enrolled in center-based care at ages 2 and 3 showed higher gender-typing patterns than children enrolled later or not at all. Associations were strongest for same-gender-friendships and gender-typed play, domains that might affect children's subsequent engagement in and learning of certain tasks, skillsets, and activities.

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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