Food Gender Stereotypes In Children Aged 6-9 Years And The Impact On Interpersonal Interactions

Different people have different dietary habits,which give different meanings to food,and gender-related meanings gradually evolve into norms,forming food gender stereotypes.Food stereotypes also exist among children and affect their interpersonal interactions.This study investigated children’s external and implicit food gender stereotypes and their influence on interpersonal interactions between 6 and 9 years old using the stereotype content model(the "Big Two" model)with reference to previous research methods,and improved and innovated the relevant research methods to complement the research on food gender stereotypes in the field of children.The content of the study was improved and innovative.This study was divided into five parts: pre-experiment,experiment 1,experiment 2,experiment 3,and experiment 4.In the pre-experiment,66 children aged 6-9 years were asked to mention the food with reference to the typical feature assignment method,and then 80 children aged 6-9 years were asked to examine the high-frequency words to obtain five male stereotyped foods and five female stereotyped foods to provide experimental materials for the subsequent experiments.In Experiment 1,food gender stereotypes at the extrapolated level were examined in 131 children aged 6-9 years by means of paired samples t-tests using a restaurant simulation game.In Experiment 2,the food gender stereotypes of 63 children aged6-9 years were examined at the implicit level through repeated measures ANOVA with reference to the semantic priming paradigm.In Experiment 3,using a contextual experimental approach,a dating situation was created in which 136 children aged 6-9 years rated and selected a dating partner who liked different stereotypical foods,and the effect of food gender stereotypes on children aged 6-9 years’ intention to make friends was examined through repeated measures ANOVA and mediated effects were analysed on the warmth evaluation dimension using the PROCESS macro procedure in SPSS.In Experiment 4,using a contextual experimental approach,a task situation was created in which 144 children aged 6-9years rated and selected cooperative partners who liked different stereotypical foods,and the effect of food gender stereotypes on the cooperative intentions of children aged 6-9 years was examined through a repeated measures ANOVA,and a mediation effect analysis was conducted on the warmth and competence evaluation dimensions using the PROCESS macro procedure in SPSS.The conclusions of this study were obtained as:(1)Food gender stereotypes existed in children aged 6-9 years at both the explicit and implicit levels: males preferred male stereotyped foods(beer,white wine,lamb,tea water and beef)and females preferred female stereotyped foods(strawberries,jelly,cake,chocolate and milk tea).(2)Children aged 6-9 years rated interpersonal partners who preferred male stereotyped foods as "high competence,low warmth" and those who preferred female stereotyped foods as "high warmth,low competence".(3)Food gender stereotypes have an impact on female evaluations of warmth,which in turn changes children aged 6-9 years’ intentions to make friends with females.(4)Food gender stereotypes have an impact on males’ evaluations of competence,which in turn changes children aged 6-9 years’ intentions to cooperate with males.