{"id":72229,"date":"2018-01-25T13:30:36","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T18:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=72229"},"modified":"2018-01-25T13:30:36","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T18:30:36","slug":"children-learn-rules-for-romance-in-preschool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2018\/01\/25\/children-learn-rules-for-romance-in-preschool\/","title":{"rendered":"Children Learn Rules for Romance in Preschool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally Posted at TSP Discoveries<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo by oddharmonic, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the United States we tend to think children develop sexuality in adolescence, but new research<\/a> by\u00a0Heidi Gansen<\/a>\u00a0shows that children learn the rules and beliefs associated with romantic relationships and sexuality much earlier.<\/p>\n

Gansen spent over 400 hours in nine different classrooms in three Michigan preschools. She observed behavior from teachers and students during daytime classroom hours and concluded that children learn \u2014 via teachers\u2019 practices \u2014 that heterosexual relationships are normal and that boys and girls have very different roles to play in them.<\/p>\n

In some classrooms, teachers actively encouraged \u201ccrushes\u201d and kissing between boys and girls. Teachers assumed that any form of affection between opposite gender children was romantically-motivated and these teachers talked about the children as if they were in a romantic relationship, calling them \u201cboyfriend\/girlfriend.\u201d On the other hand, the same teachers interpreted affection between children of the same gender as friendly, but not romantic. Children reproduced these beliefs when they played \u201chouse\u201d in these classrooms. Rarely did children ever suggest that girls played the role of \u201cdad\u201d or boys played the role of \u201cmom.\u201d If they did, other children would propose a character they deemed more gender-appropriate like a sibling or a cousin.<\/p>\n

Preschoolers also learned that boys have power over girls\u2019 bodies in the classroom. In one case, teachers witnessed a boy kiss a girl on the cheek without permission. While teachers in some schools enforced what the author calls \u201ckissing consent\u201d rules, the teachers in this school interpreted the kiss as \u201csweet\u201d and as the result of a harmless crush. Teachers also did not police boys\u2019 sexual behaviors as actively as girls\u2019 behaviors. For instance, when girls pulled their pants down teachers disciplined them, while teachers often ignored the same behavior from boys. Thus, children learned that rules for romance also differ by gender.<\/p>\n

Allison Nobles<\/a>\u00a0is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Minnesota and Graduate Editor at <\/em>The Society Pages. Her research primarily focuses on sexuality and gender, and their intersections with race, immigration, and law.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally Posted at TSP Discoveries In the United States we tend to think children develop sexuality in adolescence, but new research by\u00a0Heidi Gansen\u00a0shows that children learn the rules and beliefs associated with romantic relationships and sexuality much earlier. Gansen spent over 400 hours in nine different classrooms in three Michigan preschools. She observed behavior from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1851,"featured_media":72232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[223,34,55,54],"class_list":["post-72229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-childrenyouth","tag-education","tag-gender","tag-sexual-orientation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2018\/01\/4971557907_4c922d2174_z-e1516808829719.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72229"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72231,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72229\/revisions\/72231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}