Hand preference in 4‐ to 7‐year‐old children: An analysis with the edinburgh inventory in Brazil

Abstract

The hand preference of 761 Brazilian schoolchildren (349 boys and 412 girls) with ages ranging from 4 to 7 years was assessed with the Edinburgh Handed‐ness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971). We found significant effects due to sex, but not to age within the age range of this sample. Factor analysis of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971) revealed a single factor. Comparison of the present results with data on hand preference of Brazilian adults that we reported previously confirmed an effect of sex on the distribution of handedness. Additionally, the distribution of handedness categories in children tends to be different than that found in adults, and removal of items with limited factorial validity (opening a box for children and broom for adults) accentuates these differences. Children are more mixed‐handed and less right‐handed than adults. Furthermore, we found that differences in hand preference between children and adults do not depend on the degree of novelty of the tasks included in the inventory.