Effect of televised portrayal of non-sex-role-stereotyped occupations on children's attitudes, preferences, and behavior

Research indicates that television presents a fairly consistent, stereotyped view of occupational roles. Children are exposed to a great deal of television and by age 4 many have developed stereotyped attitudes. This experiment examined whether content of a videotape could change children's stereotyped attitudes, preferences, and behavior about six gender-intensive occupations. In the videotape, men held the roles of nurse, secretary, and day care worker. Women were in the roles of fire fighter, carpenter, and automobile mechanic. Further, the experiment examined the benefits of having an adult present to facilitate learning. The sample of 4-year-olds was stratified by gender and randomly assigned to one of four conditions: control, video-only, teacher-only, or video-plus-teacher. Children's attitudes, preferences, and behavior relating to the occupations were measured one week before treatment, immediately following treatment, and one week later. As expected, the children had stereotyped attitudes, preferences, and occupational play behavior on the pretest. The stereotyped attitudes of children in the three treatment conditions were reduced from pretest to posttest when compared to the control group. In each of the three treatment groups the girls' stereotyped preference scores were reduced while the boys' scores became more stereotyped. On the behavior test the control group and video-only group became less stereotyped, whereas the teacher-only and video-plus-teacher groups became more stereotyped. From posttest to post-posttest the attitude scores for all four groups became more stereotyped. The behavior scores from posttest to post-posttest also changed. The control, teacher-only, and video-plus-teacher groups' scores were reduced while the video-only group's mean score went up. The findings of the study indicated that 4-year-olds' attitudes, preferences, and behavior can be changed independently. Overall there was no difference between the three treatment groups. The teacher presentation or videotape alone seemed equally as effective as the combined videotape and teacher presentation.