Children's Social Inclusion Judgments in the Context of Gender

In the present study, it was aimed to examine how children evaluate social inclusion in context of gender. In total, 150 children were recruited. Along with the two vignettes about a boy and a girl who both want to be part of a ballet group, these children were presented with two study conditions as having equal and unequal qualifications. In order to assess their decisions, children were asked whom to include, the girl or the boy, into the ballet group. Later on, they were also asked for the justifications of their decisions. According to the results, children included the girl more frequently and made more stereotyping justifications in the equal qualifications. In the unequal qualifications condition, they chose the boy, who is better at ballet, by referring the group functioning. Age differences were found in the equal qualifications condition. While 10-year-olds were more likely to choose the girl in the vignette by referring to stereotyping justifications, 13-year-olds were more likely to choose the boy in the vignette by making moral justifications. This study provides important insights by shedding light on how gender roles influence children's social evaluations, and contributes to the literature by being the first study examining related judgments in the context of Turkish culture.