Laboratoire EthoS-Ethologie animale et humaine, UMR 6552-CNRS, Université de Rennes 1, Rennes, France.
PLoS One. 2011 Jan 28;6(1):e16407. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016407.
Sex differences in human social behaviors and abilities have long been a question of public and scientific interest. Females are usually assumed to be more socially oriented and skillful than males. However, despite an extensive literature, the very existence of sex differences remains a matter of discussion while some studies found no sex differences whereas others reported differences that were either congruent or not with gender stereotypes. Moreover, the magnitude, consistency and stability across time of the differences remain an open question, especially during childhood. As play provides an excellent window into children's social development, we investigated whether and how sex differences change in social play across early childhood. Following a cross-sectional design, 164 children aged from 2 to 6 years old, divided into four age groups, were observed during outdoor free play at nursery school. We showed that sex differences are not stable over time evidencing a developmental gap between girls and boys. Social and structured forms of play emerge systematically earlier in girls than in boys leading to subsequent sex differences in favor of girls at some ages, successively in associative play at 3-4 years, cooperative play at 4-5 years, and social interactions with peers at 5-6 years. Preschool boys also display more solitary play than preschool girls, especially when young. Nevertheless, while boys catch up and girls move on towards more complex play, sex differences in social play patterns are reversed in favor of boys at the following ages, such as in associative play at 4-5 years and cooperative play at 5-6 years. This developmental perspective contributes to resolve apparent discrepancies between single-snapshot studies. A better understanding of the dynamics of sex differences in typical social development should also provide insights into atypical social developments which exhibit sex differences in prevalence, such as autism.
人类社会行为和能力方面的性别差异一直是公众和科学界关注的问题。女性通常被认为比男性更具有社交性和技巧。然而，尽管有大量的文献，但性别差异的存在仍然是一个讨论的问题，一些研究没有发现性别差异，而另一些研究则报告了与性别刻板印象一致或不一致的差异。此外，差异在时间上的大小、一致性和稳定性仍然是一个悬而未决的问题，尤其是在儿童时期。由于游戏为儿童的社会发展提供了一个很好的窗口，我们研究了在整个儿童早期，社会游戏中的性别差异是否以及如何发生变化。采用横断面设计，我们观察了幼儿园户外自由游戏中的 164 名年龄在 2 至 6 岁之间的儿童，他们分为四个年龄组。我们发现，性别差异在时间上并不稳定，这表明女孩和男孩之间存在发展差距。社会和结构化的游戏形式在女孩中比在男孩中更早出现，导致在某些年龄段女孩比男孩有后续的性别差异，依次是在 3-4 岁时的同伴游戏，在 4-5 岁时的合作游戏，以及在 5-6 岁时与同伴的社会互动。学龄前男孩也比学龄前女孩更多地进行单独游戏，尤其是年幼时。然而，尽管男孩追赶上来，女孩继续向更复杂的游戏发展，但在随后的年龄阶段，社会游戏模式的性别差异又会反转，有利于男孩，例如在 4-5 岁时的同伴游戏和在 5-6 岁时的合作游戏。这种发展视角有助于解决单一快照研究之间的明显差异。更好地了解典型社会发展中性别差异的动态也应该为了解在患病率上表现出性别差异的异常社会发展提供线索，例如自闭症。
