Gendered Packaging of a STEM Toy Influences Children's Play, Mechanical Learning, and Mothers' Play Guidance.

To study effects of the gender-packaging of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) toys, mother-child dyads (31 daughters; 30 sons; M = 5.2 years) were randomly assigned to play with a mechanical toy packaged for girls (GoldieBlox) or boys (BobbyBlox). When familiarizing themselves with the toy to prepare for play, mothers given BobbyBlox built more with toy pieces than did mothers given GoldieBlox.

Sissies, Mama's Boys, and Tomboys: Is Children's Gender Nonconformity More Acceptable When Nonconforming Traits Are Positive?

The evaluation of gender nonconformity in children was examined in two studies. In Study 1, 48 young adults evaluated the positivity of culturally popular labels for gender nonconformity, including "tomboy," "sissy," and two new labels generated in a pilot study, "mama's boy" and "brat." The "mama's boy" was described as a boy who has positive feminine traits (gentle and well-mannered) as opposed to the "sissy" who was described as having negative feminine traits (crying and easily frightened).

Affecting Girls' Activity and Job Interests Through Play: The Moderating Roles of Personal Gender Salience and Game Characteristics.

Gender schema theory (GST) posits that children approach opportunities perceived as gender appropriate, avoiding those deemed gender inappropriate, in turn affecting gender-differentiated career trajectories. To test the hypothesis that children's gender salience filters (GSF-tendency to attend to gender) moderate these processes, 62 preschool girls (M = 4.5 years) were given GSF measures.

Developmental interventions to address the STEM gender gap: exploring intended and unintended consequences.

Women and girls in the United States continue to be underrepresented in STEM, particularly in engineering and technology fields. This gap has been attracting recent attention from those motivated to ensure that girls and women have access to a full range of personally satisfying careers as well as from those concerned with developing a rich talent pool to meet national workforce needs. This chapter is focused on interventions that have been designed to address this STEM gender gap.

Breadwinner and caregiver: a cross-sectional analysis of children's and emerging adults' visions of their future family roles.

Participants were 150 school-age boys and girls, 58 high school students, and 145 university students drawn from communities in the Southeastern United States. In this cross-sectional study, family role attitudes and expectations were examined across development. Parental work traditionality (occupational prestige and traditionality, and employed hours) predicted daughters' social role attitudes and plans for future family roles, such that daughters' envisioned families resembled that of their parents.