Boys will be Boys: The Effect of Social Evaluation Concerns on Gender‐Typing

Previous research has demonstrated that young children hold strong gender stereotypes for activities and toy preferences. Some researchers have argued that this rigid gender‐typing displayed by young children is associated with peer reinforcement for stereotypical behaviour and punishment of counterstereotypical behaviour. The present study tests the hypothesis that the gender‐typing displayed by young children is at least in part an active self presentational effort to win positive evaluation from peers. Sixty‐four children aged between 4 and 9 years described themselves in terms of their activity and toy preferences, once when alone and once when in front of a group of same‐sex peers. They also completed a task measuring the rigidity of their gender stereotypes. It was found using both group‐based and individual‐based analyses that the children with the most rigid stereotypes—young boys—were more likely to present themselves as sex‐typed in front of the peer audience than when alone. The older boys and the girls in all age groups tended to have less rigid stereotypes and their self‐descriptions were in general not influenced by the presence of an audience. These results show that self‐presentational concerns do influence children’s gender‐typed behaviour, and that these concerns may vary with age and gender.