32 second-grade children were assessed on measures of sex-role preference and parental imitation. The middle-class white boys were more masculine in preference than the middle-class white girls were feminine ( t = 3.43, p < .01), and lower-class black girls tended to be more mother imitative than the lower-class black boys were father imitative ( r = 2.09, p < .06). No such differences were found in sex-role preference for blacks or in imitation for whites. The results indicated that there was a dominant masculine influence in the development of sex-role preference among middle-class white children and a dominant feminine influence in parental imitation among lower-class black children.
The It Scale for Children (ITSC) was administered to 240 white and black lower-class children at 6-, 9-, and 12-yr.-old age levels. Neither the sex of E nor the age and race of S had any main effects on sex-role preference scores, but there were significant interactions between sex of E, race of S and administration method.
Although the It Scale for Children (IT scale) is probably the most commonly used measure of sex-role preference in children, its test homogeneity has not been previously reported. The IT scale was administered individually to 38 boys and 40 girls in grades N through 2 of a university school by either a male or a female experimenter. The homogeneity coefficient for girls was larger than that for boys ( p < .01). Neither the Sex of E nor the interaction, Sex of S × Sex of E, was significant. Although the coefficients for girls and boys were large enough for basic research, only the coefficient for girls was large enough for diagnostic work with present sample sizes. Further investigation of the test homogeneity of the IT scale was suggested.
Relationship of Parental Attitudes and Husband-Wife Decision-Making to Sex-Role Preference in Pre-School Children