Gender differences in stories of violence and caring by preschool children in post-divorce families: Implications for social competence
Article
Page, T, Bretherton, I. (2003). Gender differences in stories of violence and caring by preschool children in post-divorce families: Implications for social competence
. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 20(6), 485-508. 10.1023/B:CASW.0000003140.44020.ba
Page, T, Bretherton, I. (2003). Gender differences in stories of violence and caring by preschool children in post-divorce families: Implications for social competence
. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 20(6), 485-508. 10.1023/B:CASW.0000003140.44020.ba
Themes of violence and caring in the spontaneous play of pre-school-aged children in response to a revised version of the Attachment Story Completion Task (Bretherton, Ridgeway, & Cassidy, 1990) were analyzed in relation to their social behavior in child-care settings. All children (n = 66, 39 boys) lived in post-divorce families, primarily in the custody of their mothers. Some story enactments of violence predicted negative social behavior in child-care for both boys and girls. Other story enactments were strongly associated with gender and did not uniformly predict social behavior, suggesting that gender socialization plays a significant role in children's play representations of violence and caring. Implications for children's development and the interpretation of children's play behavior are discussed.
