Masculinity and femininity in children: Development of the Children's Personal Attributes Questionnaire

Abstract

A children's version of the Personal Attributes Questionnaire was developed and employed with 89 elementary school children. This instrument, which has long and short forms, assesses masculinity (instrumentality) and femininity (socioemotional orientation) on separate unipolar dimensions and also contains a bipolar Femininity-Masculinity scale. Equivalence of the children's forms with the long and short adult forms was demonstrated. In addition to psychometric data, evidence for the construct validity of the children's instrument is presented. Children's self-ratings correlated positively with parents' ratings. Gender differences agreed with expectations. The proportions of children of 4 gender-role types were similar to those reported among high school students who used the adult form; Correlations with intellectual ability were not strong. Children's positive self-concept was associated with more masculine responding. Longitudinal analyses showed differential change in directions consistent with the social desirability of masculine and feminine attributes. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1980 American Psychological Association.