There no doubt that gender stereotypes could cause visible differences between men and women in terms of career interests, occupational aspirations, and personality traits and so on. The negative impact of such differences hinders equal participation of both genders in development. Despite people value egalitarian attitudes explicitly, gender stereotypes are still transmitted implicitly through nonverbal behavior. As children gradually getting mature, gender stereotypes come to be fixed and solidified. Understanding the developmental trajectory and causes of gender stereotypes can help us to create a gender equality environment and promote the full development of both genders.
This study focuses on preschool and early school一age children and uses two studies and three experiments to investigate two issues: first, the development of gender stereotypes in children; and second, the influence of teachers' nonverbal behaviors on children's gender stereotypes.
In Study 1，a sample of 192 boys and girls aged 4-9 years undertook story-telling and puzzle tasks to examine the developmental trajectory of gender stereotypes in the intellectual, social, and toy domains. Compared with the gender stereotype in toys domains, the gender stereotype in the intellectual and social domains were endorsed lately by children. Specifically, Children's gender stereotype in toys domains were greatly increased in 4-year-old. Boys aged 5 were more likely than girls to associate brilliance with their own gender in intellectual domain. Girls aged 6 were more likely than boys to associate helpful with their own gender in social domain. The development of gender stereotype in children aged 7 was reached the top and kept steady from 8 to 9 years old. In Study 2, two experiments investigated whether teachers' nonverbal behaviors influence children's gender stereotypes. In experiment 1 96participants (aged 5-7 years) are divided into three groups which the experimental groups viewed multiple videos of interactions between a "teacher" and two“students" while the control group did not. In experiment 2, 64 participants are divided into four groups which the first two groups viewed a "teacher's" positive nonverbal behaviors videos while another two (smile for boys or for girls) groups viewed a "teacher's" negative one (headshake for boys or for girls). This study shows that teachers' nonverbal behaviors have no influence on children's choices about gender-typed toys while it has influence on children's choices about intellectual and social domains. Moreover, children are more sensitive to teachers' negative nonverbal behaviors than positive one. It may be an important implicit factor in the development of children's gender stereotypes.
The pre-school period is the important time for the development of gender stereotype. Teachers' nonverbal behaviors can affect children's gender stereotypes. This effect varies from domain types and teachers' nonverbal behavior types.
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