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Abstract
Defensiveness in 4- and 6-year-old boys and girls was measured using a social desirability scale, a parent rating form of children's defensive behavior, and a semiprojective emotional attribution story-telling task. On the emotional attribution task, boys attributed less intense emotions to stories than did girls, and older children attributed less intense emotions to stories than did younger children. The quality and intensity of children's emotional attributions were related to their defensive styles, and individual differences in children's defensive styles occurred as early as age 4.