The purpose of this paper is to highlight the important role that gender plays in organizing and affecting the quality of the classroom climate. We review research showing how students' peer relationships tend to be segregated by gender and discuss the consequences of children spending much of their time almost exclusively with same-gender peers,…

This study examines whether bullies' gender conformity, pressure to conform to gender norms (felt pressure), and experiences of homophobic name-calling are associated with a tendency to bully gender conforming victims (GCV) and gender non-conforming victims (GNCV). Longitudinal changes were analyzed on all peer interactions in an entire 6th-grade…

We explored how gender and gender similarity affects friendship dissolution following the transition to middle school. We predicted that both gender and gender similarity (measured by perceived similarity to own-gender and other-gender peers) explain dissolution trends and that less own-gender similarity or more other-gender similarity predicts…

During adolescence, gender identity (GI) develops through a dialectic process of personal reflection and with input from the social environment. Peers play an important role in the socialization of gendered behavior, but no studies to-date have assessed peer influences on GI. Thus, the goal of the present study was to examine peer influences on…

In a school sample of early adolescents, we expanded the view of gender typicality to include adolescents who varied in the extent of felt similarity to own- and other-gender peers, and examined how their felt own- and other-gender similarity, are related to depression. Further, we examined the moderating role of parental acceptance of gender…

The goal was to assess the role of children's social cognitions about peers in attitudes toward school. Because of gender segregation, we differentiated children's cognitions about same-gender and other-gender peers. We examined the influence of gender-based relationship efficacy for both own-gender and other-gender peers (GBRE-Own and GBRE-Other)…

A stochastic actor-based model was used to investigate the origins of sex segregation by examining how similarity in sex of peers and time spent in gender-typed activities affected affiliation network selection and how peers influenced children's ("N" = 292; "M"[subscript age] = 4.3 years) activity involvement. Gender had…

Assessed adults' stereotypes of gender-traditional and nontraditional children by analyzing undergraduates' ratings of the desirability of 25 personality traits, and their classifying children as "tomboys" or "sissies" based on 26 traits and behaviors. Results show extensive adult stereotyping of young children. Tomboys were stereotyped similar to…

Eighty male and female students at the University of British Columbia responded to a questionnaire on the acceptability of cross-sex behavior in children. Effeminate boys were viewed more negatively than masculine girls. Discusses the reasons for this distinction, and the consequences of cross-sex behavior. (DM)

A verbal and a perceptual test of gender constancy were administered to 26 four- to six-year olds. The majority of the children answered questions as if referring to a "pretend" rather than "real" situation, which decreased scores of gender constancy on both tests. (AOS)

Children of 4 to 10 years of age were told about children whose sex was not specified and who had a masculine or feminine toy or characteristic. Results indicated that children first learn characteristics relevant to their own sex, and that older children's stereotypic judgments about gender are more extreme than those of younger children. (BC)

With 72 children between 4 and 10 years of age, researchers tested how children use information about others' sex, sex-typed interests, and cross-sex labels to make predictions. Both younger and older children liked same-sex children and disliked tomboys and sissies. In contrast, younger and older children used information differently when…