THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GENDER BOUNDARIES IN PREADOLESCENCE - CONTEMPORARY CORRELATES AND ANTECEDENTS OF BOUNDARY VIOLATION AND MAINTENANCE

Previous research has established the importance of gender boundaries as a normative aspect of development in middle childhood. Here, the na ture and importance of gender boundaries as an individual differences construct was explored. Ratings of gender boundary violation and gende r boundary maintenance were made of 47 10-11-year-old children partici pating in a series of summer day camps. These ratings were supported b y videotape-based behavior codings of gender boundary violating behavi ors and by live observations of sheer number of associations with memb ers of the opposite gender. In addition, considerable external validat ion of these individual differences was obtained. Children low on gend er boundary violation and (especially) children high on boundary maint enance were independently judged by camp counselors to be socially com petent. They also were found to be higher on a friendship variable, ba sed on observation. Those who violated boundaries were especially unpo pular with peers, based on a child interview. Finally, boundary violat ion and maintenance were related to attachment history and to early me asures of parent-child generational boundary distortions.