Gender Identity In Children

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Identity is most simply defined as a person's own sense of self; their personal sense of who they are. “Children start to realized gender identity by the age of three and begin to exhibit gender type preferences” (Chrisler 2).We often see the results of this sorting process in behaviors of adolescents such as adopting and shedding different personas including speech patterns, clothing styles and peer groups. Although these transitions often seem drastic and swift, adolescents are utilizing their newly honed abilities efficiently to choose and ultimately construct their own unique identity. Just as any structure is built with individual building blocks, brought together to create a whole, so is the identity. A range of socialization agents …show more content…
“A child's earliest exposure to what it means to be male or female comes from parents” (Lauer & Lauer, Santrock, Kaplan 2). “From the time their children are babies, parents treat sons and daughters differently, dressing infants in gender-specific colors, giving gender-differentiated toys, and expecting different behavior from boys and girls” (Thorne 2). “One study indicates that parents have differential expectations of sons and daughters as early as 24 hours after birth” (Rubin, Provenzano, & Luria 2). Kohlberg’s research shows that children are able to consistently label themselves and others as boys or girls at around two years of age and, between ages three and four, they learn that gender is a stable characteristic of a person across time, and by age five they also learn that gender is a stable trait across situations. “Parents encourage their sons and daughters to participate in sex typed activities, including doll playing and engaging in housekeeping activities for girls and playing with trucks and engaging in sports activities for boys” (Eccles, Jacobs, & Harold). Parents play a big role in the way their child identifies …show more content…
When being around the same peers children desire to conform to the norms that their peers are conforming to. For example if one friend is wearing a dress the other friend will mostly want to be wearing a dress too, but on the other hand if a girl is wearing “boys” clothing the friends might make fun of her, making her want to change what she is wearing. Also the children who don’t conform to what his/her friend group is wearing or doing then they may be censured or pushed out of the group for not conforming to the norms of the group. “Children play an active role in their own and their peers' gender socialization (the process by which they come to acquire the knowledge, values, and skills needed to behave “appropriately” as a male or female in their society)” ( Edwards 2). This quote supports the ways in which children and their peers’ influence the way in which they gender develop. Young aged children also tend to socialize with the same sex peers and usually do not invited different sexed children to their houses (Putnam, Myers-Walls, Love 1). This can play a role in gender development because if children are only playing with the same sexed children they are not exploring the options of the other sexed children activities and toys this influences what gender roles a male or female child takes on. Who children associated with when they are at adolescent age can influence
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