Self--Social aspects

The goal of this study was to test the gender self-socialization model (GSSM). This
model suggests that gender identity motivates children to strive for cognitive consistency
between their gender stereotypes and their self-efficacy for those stereotypes. This study
presents a novel approach to stereotype assessment by focusing on children's
idiosyncratic stereotypes (as opposed to number of commonly shared stereotypes, which
do not provide detailed information about the types of stereotypes individual children
hold). Participants were 305 children in grades three through eight (Mage = 10.8 years).
Independent variables included children's stereotypes of 62 contextually tagged
behaviors and gender identity (comprising five dimensions). Interactive influences of
children's stereotypes and gender identity on self-efficacy were investigated. As
expected, stereotypes and gender identity worked together to predict children's self-efficacy perception for the 62 behaviors. These findings suggest that the role of gender
identity is important in the adoption of personally held gender stereotypes.