MEASURES OF CHILDRENS SEX TYPING IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

Measures of sex-typing suitable for use with 8- to 14-year-olds are pr oposed. They involve interests, toys, sports, household jobs, friends, similarity to peers and personality. The measures fit conceptually in to Huston's (1983) framework within the categories ''Behavioural enact ment or adoption'' and ''Identity or self-perception''. The sample com prised first and second born children from 191 families (first borns - 98 males, 93 females; second borns - 95 males, 96 females). They were selected using a stratified random sampling procedure involving area risk scores. The children in 161 families were assessed on a second oc casion, on average 16 months after the first testing. The measures wer e shown to have suitable psychometric properties: sex differences in t he expected directions, moderate coefficient alpha values, consistency over time in terms of moderate correlations, and few changes in means . Intercorrelations among the measures revealed little coherence eithe r within each of the two Huston categories or among the measures in ge neral. These results support a multidimensional view of sex-typing and draw attention to limitations of studies which use single measures of this variable.