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Sex-role perception, portrayal, and preference in the fantasy play of young children

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Abstract

The naturalistic observation of role-taking behavior in 90 spontaneously occurring (i.e., unelicited) fantasy play episodes of 16 4-year-old children in same-sex paired interaction revealed (1) a differential perception of male, female, parental, and conjugal roles, particularly in terms of competence; (2) the accuracy, depth, and breadth of their sex-role portrayals; and (3) a preference for same-sex role-play. The assimilative and accommodative functions of roleplay in the early acquisition of sex role are discussed, as well as the degree of decentration required for the roleplay activities to occur.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rutgers Medical School, USA

    Wendy Schempp Matthews

Authors
  1. Wendy Schempp Matthews
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Additional information

The research reported here was carried out at Cornell University. It was part of a doctoral dissertation on the nature of fantasy in the spontaneous play of young children, which was in turn part of a larger study of peer interaction conducted by Lee C. Lee. It was supported by a research grant from the College of Human Ecology, State University of New York. This article was originally presented as a paper at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, New Orleans, March 1977.

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Matthews, W.S. Sex-role perception, portrayal, and preference in the fantasy play of young children. Sex Roles 7, 979–987 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288499

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00288499

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