Effects of pronoun type and gender role consistency on children's recall and interpretation of stories

The pronouns he, she, and they were compared with he and she alternating, t o examine recall and gender interpretation of stories. Participants, who we re ethnically diverse, were 48 girls and boys aged 6 and 9 from working-cla ss and middle-class areas of San Antonio. Children read stories about imagi nary characters of ambiguous gender referred to by varying pronouns and enj oying either stereotypically masculine, feminine, or neutral activities. Re call was higher for girls, older children, and children who heard stories c ontaining she instead of he. Six-year-olds, but not 9-year-olds, recalled m ore information from stories containing gender-consistent activities. Inter pretation of character gender for he, she and he/she alternating was based largely on pronoun; for stories using they, it was based both on pronoun an d activity. The results underscore the nongeneric nature of generic pronoun s and the gender differences in recall and interpretation evoked by contact with gender specific reading material.