Relation of Preschool Sex-Typing to Intellectual Performance in Elementary School

Abstract

Children who had been observed in preschool when 3 yr. old using an observation schedule (Fagot & Patterson, 1969) consisting of 28 play behaviors were assigned interest scores on the basis of percent of time spent in the various activities. Masculinity scores were then computed on the basis of percentage of significantly preferred sex-typed behaviors. Several years later when one group was approximately 6 yr. old and the other group was approximately 10 yr. old, these same children were given the Children's Embedded-figures Test and rated by their own teachers on intellectual performance. Sex differences were present in the Embedded-figures Test with boys making fewer errors, but only on one variable, music, was there a significant teachers' rating. The relationship of preschool interest patterns to elementary school academic achievement and projected career choices suggested that the play choices in preschool have different meanings for boys and girls and therefore different consequences for later achievement.