CHILDRENS AND ADOLESCENTS GENDER PREFERENCES FOR CONVERSATIONAL PARTNERS FOR SPECIFIC COMMUNICATIVE OBJECTIVES

For eight hypothetical situations involving different communicative objectives, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth graders indicated whether the person they most wanted to talk with was male or female. As expected, younger children preferred a same-sex partner, but by eighth grade more cross-sex preferences emerged, particularly when wanting to pass time or feel included. Boys were generally preferred for telling jokes and stories. By eighth grade, female partners were preferred when the participant wanted to be cheered up or needed advice in persuading or explicating a complicated idea.