The Influence of Age, Gender, and Having a Younger Sibling on Children's Knowledge About Babies

ABSTRACT

This article reports on two studies designed to measure 4- to 7-year- old children's knowledge about babies and its relationship to gender role development. In Study 1, children were asked several questions about babies and were given the Sex Role Learning Index (SERLI; Edelbrock & Sugawara, 1978). Girls provided more answers to one question, and children with younger siblings provided more answers to another. Overall, however, there were few relationships between knowledge about babies and gender role development. The second study measured knowledge about babies with two measures. The first measure asked children to identify foods that babies could eat and activities babies were capable of doing. The second measure asked children to identify the names and uses of certain objects. Older children scored higher on the foods and activities measure. Children who had younger siblings performed better on the objects measure. Gender and gender role development showed little relationship to knowledge about babies.