The Influence Of Parental Gender Stereotypes On The Mental Rotation Ability Of 4-6 Year-old Children

Mental rotation ability is the ability of the subject to imagine two-dimensional or three-dimensional rotation of objects in the mind.Gender stereotypes are people's fixed opinions or beliefs about men or women in terms of appearance,roles,activities,personality,etc.Whether the gender stereotypes of parents will affect the 2D mental rotation ability of 4-6 years old children has not been studied in depth in the existing research.Based on this,the research aims to explore the relationship between parents 'gender stereotypes and the two-dimensional mental rotation ability of 4-6 years old children,and to provide suggestions on how to guide the socialization of children 's gender roles and reduce the transmission of gender stereotypes.The study randomly selected 206 4-6 years old children and their parents in the rural and urban areas of Zhengzhou,Kaifeng,Xinyang,and Ruzhou as the research objects.The Windows Test(WT)compiled by David Tzuriel and Gila Egozi(2010)was used to measure the two-dimensional mental rotation ability of young children.With the Child Gender Socialization Scale to understand the gender stereotypes of children 's parents.The relationship between the gender stereotypes of the parents and the two-dimensional mental rotation ability of the children is tested,and the following conclusions are drawn:1.There are significant differences in the gender stereotypes of parents of 4-6 years old children in the gender of the child,the age of the mother,the number of children in the family,the monthly income per capita of the family,and Between urban and rural.2.The overall development of the 2D mental rotation ability of 4-6 years old children is at a medium level.There are significant differences in children's two-dimensional psychological rotation ability in terms of children's age,living area,mother's education level,and family's per capita monthly income level.3.The gender stereotypes of parents are significantly correlated with the two-dimensional mental rotation ability of 4-6 years old children.Among them,the two dimensions of boy temperament and girl temperament have a significant positive effect on children's two-dimensional mental rotation ability;cross-gender dimension has a significant negative effect on children's two-dimensional mental rotation ability.Based on the above research conclusions,the researchers put forward the following suggestions: First,parents of young children should reduce gender stereotypes and establish a correct concept of gender roles;second,provide children with experience related to mental rotation;Third,pay attention to children's bisexual temperament and promote the development of children's mental rotation ability.