TITLE Parental Sei - Typed Perceptions of Their Infants at Two Different Ages

ABSTRACT Parental sex-typed perceptiont of infants tt two different ages were examined in this study. Twenty-nine primiparous couples were recruited from a local hospital where they had, been participating in various childbirth and child-cire education programs. Sixteeriware parents of boys, and 13 were parents of girls. First when their children were 5 to 9 months old and again when they were 12 to 17 months old, all parents completed questionnaires consisting of 20 bipolar word pairs arranged on 7-point scales. Parents were asked to circle the point on the scale which most closely represented their perception of their child. Results indicated that both parents' perceptions of daughters differed rather consistently and often significNly from perceptions of sons. On both questionWaire administrition , boys were seen as more aggressive, firmer,ADigger, calmer, rougher; more stubborn, and less easily scared than girls. For the second adm4nistration only, boys were regarded as significantly noisier and Tess cuddly than girls. It wfs concluded that at both ages, parents do stereotype the-iitofants -ffecording to sex. (MP)