Gender biases in children's appraisals of injury risk and other children'srisk-taking behaviors

Children ages 6, 8, and 10 years were given tasks designed to assess their beliefs about risk of injury from activities. Children were asked to apprai se the risk of injury for boys and girls engaging in various play behaviors and to judge the sex of the character in stories about children engaging i n activities that result in injuries. Results revealed gender biases in chi ldren's appraisals of injury risk: Both boys and girls rated boys as having a lower likelihood of injury than girls even though the boys and girls wer e engaging in the exact same activities. Children also showed higher accura cy in identifying the sex of the character in stories of boys' injuries tha n girls' injuries, and accuracy improved with the participant's age. Overal l, the results indicate that by the age of 6 years children already have di fferential beliefs about injury vulnerability for boys and girls. Although boys routinely experience more injuries than girls, children rate girls as having a greater risk of injury than boys. With increasing age, school-age children develop a greater awareness of the ways in which boys and girls di ffer in risk-taking activities that lead to injury outcomes. (C) 2000 Acade mic Press.