Adults' perceptions of children's independence and other sex-role characteristics as a function of child's gender label.

Male and female college students were presented with a photograph labeled as a 5-yr.-old boy or girl and heard statements attributed to the child. They then rated the child on sex-role traits and responded to open-ended questions about the child. The primary findings involved sex of child by sex of adult interactions on ratings of independence and leadership: in both cases, same-sex children were rated higher than opposite-sex children. There was also some evidence that women having high contact with children rated the child more extremely on opposite-sex traits than did those with little contact.