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Decades ago, Rheingold and Cook (1975) observed marked gender-typing of preschool children's playthings and room furnishings. Our purpose was to determine whether this form of implicit gender socialization has been altered by cultural shifts toward more egalitarian attitudes. We also examined potential predictors of children's room contents, including parents' self-perceived gender-stereotypical personality traits (i.e., expressivity and instrumentality), sibling composition, and preschool experience as a proxy for exposure to peer pressure to conform to gender norms. In-depth cataloging of 75 U.S. preschoolers' room contents (n = 39 girls) found significant gender differences that were consistent with the gender-typing documented decades ago. Multilevel modeling showed parents' expressivity and instrumentality largely to be unrelated to their child's gender-typed playthings. Also, children in families with same-gender siblings, and girls who had spent more time in preschool, had more gender-typed playthings. Thus, the gender-typing of children's playthings is attributable to multiple pathways, although familial contributors were minimal in our study. We discuss implications for toy advertising and how parents can be astute consumers, as well as strategies to create gender-neutral preschool classrooms and home environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has explored the child gender preferences of preadoptive parents. This study utilized a mixed-methods approach to explore child gender preferences (and individuals’ reasons for such preferences) in a geographically diverse, US sample of 93 heterosexual, 61 lesbian, and 48 gay male preadoptive couples. Heterosexual men were the least likely to demonstrate a gender preference and gay men were the most likely. Individuals in heterosexual relationships were more likely to prefer girls than individuals in same-gender relationships. In explaining their preferences, sexual minorities often emphasized gender socialization considerations (e.g., their perceived inability to socialize a child of the opposite gender) and concerns about heterosexism (e.g., some gay men preferred girls because they felt a boy would encounter more harassment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to examine the relationships between gender role egalitarian attitudes and gender, age, parents’ education and occupations, anticipated age of marriage and child bearing, desired family size, career choices, and preference for sex of the children among 470 Chinese college students. Statistically significant relationships were observed between gender role egalitarian attitudes and gender, age, and anticipated age of marriage and childbearing. There were no relationships between gender role egalitarian attitudes and preference for sex of the children, desired family size, parents’ education and occupation, and Chinese students’ career choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which examined parental preferences for sex of children in Canada, using data from the 1984 Canadian Fertility Survey. Hypotheses; Measurement of sex preferences; Statistical analysis; Results and discussion.

In both 1985 and 1988, college student preferences for the sex of an only child were examined using social surveys. For both years, it was found that male students strongly prefer a male child, but that, female students moderately prefer a female child. Gender of respondent accounted for most of the sex preference difference. The sex role attitude of agreement with the having wife retain her own name was the only other variable significantly related to sex preference. It is argued that differing male-female role expectations for women as wives and mothers partly explained the gender differences in sex preference for a child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the result of the study regarding the development of parental preferences in the first two years of life. The study is intended to explore sex of parents, by sex of child interactions, in the development of parent-infant attachments in early life. Moreover, it is also necessary to evaluate whether sex-role learning occurs in the process of early family-child interactions. Thus, the participants were in two overlapping longitudinal investigations with different levels of observations according to age. It is therefore found that students of sex-role adoption must pay more attention to younger ages and to the potential importance of the father-infant relationship.