Prenatal hormones and childhood sex segregation: playmate and play style preferences in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia
- PMID: 21338606
- PMCID: PMC3085977
- DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2011.02.007
Prenatal hormones and childhood sex segregation: playmate and play style preferences in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia
- PMID: 21338606
- PMCID: PMC3085977
- DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2011.02.007
Abstract
We investigated playmate and play style preference in children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) (26 females, 31 males) and their unaffected siblings (26 females, 17 males) using the Playmate and Play Style Preferences Structured Interview (PPPSI). Both unaffected boys and girls preferred same-sex playmates and sex-typical play styles. In the conflict condition where children chose between a same-sex playmate engaged in an other-sex activity or an other-sex playmate engaged in a same-sex activity, boys (both CAH and unaffected brothers) almost exclusively chose playmates based on the preferred play style of the playmate as opposed to the preferred gender label of the playmate. By contrast, unaffected girls used play style and gender label about equally when choosing playmates. Girls with CAH showed a pattern similar to that of boys: their playmate selections were more masculine than unaffected girls, they preferred a boy-typical play style and, in the conflict condition, chose playmates engaged in a masculine activity. These findings suggest that prenatal androgen exposure contributes to sex differences in playmate selection observed in typically developing children and that, among boys and girls exposed to high levels of androgens prenatally, play style preferences drive sex segregation in play.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Figures
Figure 1
Playmate and Play Style Preferences…
Figure 1
Playmate and Play Style Preferences Structured Interview (PPPSI) stimuli.
Figure 2
Conflict condition: Percentages of children…
Figure 2
Conflict condition: Percentages of children who preferred male targets engaged in a feminine…
Comment in
-
Re: Prenatal hormones and childhood sex segregation: playmate and play style preferences in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia.J Urol. 2012 Jun;187(6):2206-7. doi: 10.1016/j.juro.2012.02.2511. Epub 2012 Apr 12. J Urol. 2012. PMID: 22579206 No abstract available.
References
-
- Alexander GM, Hines M. Gender labels and play styles: Their relative contributions to children’s selection of playmates. Child Development. 1994;65:869–879. - PubMed
-
- Alexander GM, Hines M. Sex differences in response to children’s toys in nonhuman primates (Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus) Evolution and Human Behavior. 2002;23:467–479.
-
- Berenbaum SA, Hines M. Early androgens are related to childhood sex-typed toy preferences. Psychological Science. 1992;3(3):203–206.
-
- Berenbaum SA, Snyder E. Early hormonal influences on childhood sex-typed activity and playmate preferences: Implications for the development of sexual orientation. Developmental Psychology. 1995;31(1):31–42.
Publication types
MeSH terms
Grants and funding
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Medical
