Gender differences in initiation and maintenance of pretend play with Taiwanese children

This study explored gender differences in the metacommunicative signals for initiating and maintaining pretend play of Taiwanese children. Sources for enhancing the meanings of the signals in terms of social and physical contexts were described. The participants were ten 5-to 6-year-old Taiwanese boys and ten 5-to 6-year-old Taiwanese girls in two classrooms; five boys and five girls were selected in each classroom. Naturalistic observation and tape recording of each target child were made during children's classroom free play time for one hour, twice during two months. Transcriptions of audio recordings, combined with transcriptions of field observations by means of constant comparison, identified patterns of boys' and girls' initiation and maintenance play signals.; The findings indicated many gender differences in using metacommunicative signals whether to initiate or maintain pretend play. Boys engaged in more initiating signals than girls; however fewer scenarios for maintaining signals were seen for boys. Girls identified others' role identities and suggested enactment or ideas to others. Boys tended to use self-reference to objects and roles either to initiate a pretend frame or to maintain the ongoing pretend play. Girls were more likely to use verbalization to mark the pretend frame, while boys used more nonverbal signals than girls whether in initiation or maintenance of pretend play.; The content and process of metacommunicative signals used in initiating and maintaining interactive pretend play were influenced by social and physical contexts. Materials stimulated as well as interrupted children's pretend play, more often for boys than for girls. The element of space, time, and experiences outside school in physical contexts influenced boys' and girls' play interactions whether in initiation or maintenance. Classroom culture, social relations, social custom or social convention which fell under the aspect of social context also suggested meanings for boys' and girls' metacommunicative signals in initiating and maintaining pretend play. Those contextual sources embedded in children's interactions during pretend play served as 'pivots' to create their play and make their play meaningful. Girls were found to focus more on relationship than on materials; boys oriented more toward materials than toward relationships during their pretend play. Building on the ideas of Bateson (1972) and Vygotasky (1978), it was recognized that a variety of boys' and girls' verbal and nonverbal metacommunicative signals which were socially and culturally shaped mark and create the frames of pretend play.