Sex Roles and Statuses in Peer Interactions in Elementary Schools.

This longitudinal study investigated the frequency and type of cross-sex peer interactions which occurred in six first grade classrooms. The effects of task structures (or patterns of instructional organization), and the impact of the racial composition of the classrooms on the frequency and type of cross-sex interactions were also explored. Ethnographic observations were completed in 30 to 90 minute sessions over a 5 or 6 month period in each classroom. Results revealed the following: (1) a child's gender had a systematic effect on his or her peer relationships, with girls playing supportive roles and having less social power in their interchanges with boys; (2) classroom organizational patterns, while influencing the frequency of cross-sex interactions, had little effect on the quality of these interactions; and (3) majority-black classrooms displayed more egalitarian interchanges between male and female students. In general, these results provide support for the study's hypotheses that within classrooms, cross-sex peer interactions would mirror traditional sex role relationships among males and females, and that female students would have less social power than males in peer interchanges. Implications of the study's results for the design of effective programs to achieve sex and race equality are discussed. (Author/MP)