Gender Differences in Young Children’s Artistic Production and Preference
...ults would be in agreement with the findings of Boyatzis and Eades (1999). The children will behave in accordance with gender schemas—they will produce as well as prefer gender-stereotypical art. Method Participants Seven 2- to 5- year-old children (M = 3;8, range 2;2 – 5;4, 4 males, 3 females) participated. All participants were from English speaking and primarily middle-class families. Materials For task one, nine coloring sheets were selected from http://www.cartooncritters.com. Three coloring sheets depicted male oriented images. Children and Artistic Tendencies 5 The coloring sheets labeled as “male” included images of a carpenter, a knight, and a cowboy. Another three coloring sheets displayed female oriented images. These images consisted of a Hawaiian dancer, a ballerina, and a unicorn. The final three coloring sheets depicted “gender-neutral” designs that were neither male nor female oriented. These so-called “neutral” images were of a birthday cake, a cartoon star, and a cow. See Table 1 for examples of the coloring sheets used during testing. Each child was given a box of crayons and asked to color three of the nine sheets. For the second task, the child was given a blank, white, 8 x 10 piece of paper and asked to draw a picture. In order to measure children’s artistic preference and production tendencies, a 5-point scale (1 = very feminine and 5 = very masculine) was used to assess the gender orientation of each child’s drawing and coloring sheet choices. To avoid experimenter’s bias, the three researchers’ who were not present during testing, performed the ratings. This ensured that the evaluators were not aware of the subject’s gender. Procedure Before the experiment began, the guardians of the participants were informed of the purpose of the research as well as the methodology of the study. Children were individually tested in their homes. The experimenter aimed to perform the testing in a quiet environment with minimal distractions (ie. no siblings, toys, etc.) present. Before the child entered the testing room, the experimenter spread out all nine of the coloring sheets, in random order, on a table or floor. Upon entering the room, the participation of the child was requested (e.g., “Hi ____________, how would you like to color some pictures right now?”). If the child agreed, they were given a box of crayons the Children and Artistic Tendencies 6 experimenter explained the desired activity (e.g., “Now you get to choose three coloring pages that you like the best. Here are some crayons, now go wild! Don’t worry I won’t take your masterpieces with me. You’ll get to keep them for yourself.” The child was given as much time as they wanted to color the coloring sheets. After this first task was completed, the experimenter asked the child if they would like to participate in the second task (e.g., “Now how would you like to draw your own pictures?”). If the child agreed, the second task was explained to the child (e.g., “Now I want you to draw me a picture of anything you’d like. Take as much time as you want.”). Upon commencement of the experiment, regardless of whether all tasks were completed, the participants were praised for their performance and given a small token of appreciation (ie. toy, candy, etc.). Immediately following the session, the guardians were debriefed. Coding system When each participant chose the three coloring sheets that they wanted to color, their choices were recorded by the experimenter. Each child was assessed a preference score out of 15. Male oriented coloring sheets were worth five points, female sheets were worth one point, and gender-neutral sheets were worth three points. For example if a child chose the star (neutral), the knight (male), and the cowboy (male). This child would receive a preference score of 13, meaning they tend to be more masculine in their artistic preferences. For the second task, the experimenter collected the child’s drawing and presented it to the other three researchers who were not present during testing. These researchers Children and Artistic Tendencies 7 were not told the gender of the child. Each drawing was assessed based on technical features (i.e. angular/geometric/curvy/organic features) and then rated on a 5-point gender-stereotypical content scale (1 = extremely feminine, 2 = feminine, 3 = neutral, 4 = masculine, 5 = extremely masculine). The scores given by each of the researchers were summed to give each child a production score out of 15. Results The artistic production scores of the male participants and female participants were compared with an independent t-test. Male participants had significantly higher masculine scores (M = 10.50, SD = 1.154) than female participants (M = 6.66, SD = 2.645, t(5) = 2.590, p < .05). For the artistic preference scores, males also had significantly higher masculine scores (M = 16.50, SD = 4.163) relative to the female participants scores (M = 9.33, SD = 1.1915, t(5) = 2.77, p < .05). Discussion This study revealed that gender differences in art production and preference are present prior to the elementary school years. It has been demonstrated that the gender differences evident in school children's art actually emerge as early as two years of age. On both tasks, children between the ...