Gender in Early Childhood Kharma Rogers PSY 104: Child and Adolescent Psychology Sonya Malphus January 25, 2009 Gender in Early Childhood The early years of a child’s life from birth to age eight and especially the first three years are the most critical to a child’s development.Addressing gender roles, along with the stereotyping of male and female roles as well as models of behavior must start at home. In most cultures, children have adopted socially- accepted gender roles by the time they enter preschool. Three types of theories explain gender socialization: psychoanalytic, cognitive development and social learning help us to understand how gender develops within the child. In most cultures that have been studied, there is less socialization and education of boys into clear roles and behaviors than of girls (Agarwal, S.1997). Traditional practices included a tendency to privilege boys, giving boys wider leeway in behavior and excusing non-social behaviors by saying “boys will be boys”. This does not teach boys responsibility nor clarify what will be expected of them. On the other hand, traditional practices socialized girls to take responsibility for themselves and others from an early age. Over the years major theories have been proposed to explain gender development in early childhood. Three types of theories explain gender socialization: psychoanalytic, cognitive development theory, and social learning. Psychoanalytic theory posited different processes to explain gender development in boys and girls.Initially, both boys and girls are believed to identify with their mothers. However, between 3 to 5 years of age this changes and children identify with same-sex parent. “The process of identification is depicted as one in which children undertake wholesale adoption of the characteristics and qualities of the same-sex parent. Through this process of identification children become sex-typed.” (McFarrow, Aviles, J. 1997)Identification with the...