Zeynep Cetin Ph.D *, Mehmet Ungan, Assoc.Prof**, Arzu Ipek Ph.D *, Ozcan Dogan Ph.D, Assoc. Prof.*

*Department of Child Development and Education, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.
**Middle East Technical University Medical Centre and Faculty of Education, Department of Elementary Education, 06530 - Ankara, TURKEY

Correspondence to:
Zeynep Cetin, Ph.D
Hacettepe University,
Department of Child Development and Education
06100, Samanpazari, Ankara-TURKEY
Phone: +90 312 305 1526/142
Fax: +90 312 305 30 53
E-mail: zcetin@hacettepe.edu.tr

 

ABSTRACT Çetin Z, Yükselen A, Dogan Ö. A comparative study on sex role perception of mentally handicapped children, normal developing children and children under protection. Aim:This study aims to investigate if there is any difference in sex role learning between mentally handicapped children, normally developing children and children under protection. Methods: The study covers 40 mentally retarded children, 40 children who are not mentally retarded and 36 children under protection. Children taken into this research are selected by simple random sampling method from special/private education institutions in the centrum, from kindergartens located at the centrum of Ankara province, and from orphanages at the centrum of Ankara province. Parents and teachers are given and requested to fill in a questionnaire about the factors that can affect the gender roles of the children. All the children included in the study were applied The Sex Role Learning Index (SERLI) about the acquisition of gender role. Results: There were significant differences between the three groups, and between girls and boys for some sub-scales. Key word: Mentally handicapped children, children who are not mentally handicapped, children under protection, gender role, sexual development, sexual education.

One of the most important parts of development in human life is the development of sex role. Sexuality begins before the birth of a child and shows continuous development. The development of sexuality, a common field of debate, is one of the fundamental issues for parents, students and researchers. A primary reason for this centrality is that gender attracts attention and is the first perceived feature of a person. The female or male nature of a person is a crucial feature. Another reason for its importance is that gender is a primary factor in the relationship of a person with other people and with the physical environment; by this means a person has experience of his or her self. An individual's preferences of friends, toys, jobs and professions are always related with his or her sexuality⁽¹⁾.

The child first of all takes his or her mother and father as a gender role model while having his or her first social experiences. There are many theories concerning acquiring sexuality. Freud (1915) defends that a child by passing certain development stages shapes the role of sexuality, and that this process is the basis for sexual development. Freud thinks that the human body has a physiological energy, which he called "libido." He also suggests that this energy is focused in different parts of the child and adult body in various stages of life. According to Freud's theory sexual development stages are completed in five periods⁽²⁾.

Oral period (Age of 0-1): In this period the "libido" gathers up around the mouth and by this way it satisfies the feelings of happiness such as sucking, hunger and thirst.

Anal period (Age of 1-3): In this period as libido gathers up at the anus and rectum, the collecting and disposing of urine and excrement are the most important issues in a child's interests. With this toilet training comes into the agenda. Generally in this period, the children begins to perceive the concept of female and male.

Phallic period (Age of 3-6): In this period "libido" is in the child's genital area. The most important feature of this period is that the process of acquiring the sexual role begins now. Freud explains this "identity" as the admiration of a girl for her father and oppositely seeing the mother as a rival to herself, a phenomenon that he named "Electra Complex." The boy, on the other hand, admires the mother, a behavioral trait called the "Oedipal Complex." By identifying with the mother or father, the child tries to acquire those sexual roles.

Latent period (Age of 6-11): In this period the "libido" is used for looking around and for building efficient relationships with other people. Sexual instincts are almost dormant in this period. Teachers and friends also are very important in this period.

Adolescence period (Age of 11-18): The sexual instincts that disappear in the latent period again come on the scene. With the beginning of interest in the opposite sex, the feelings of participating in group activities, socializing and the wish to become married become evident.

Resembling Freud's theory, Bandura (1984) defends that boys learn by observing their fathers and girls learn by observing and copying their mothers. Opposite to these theoreticians, Lawrence Kohlberg (1966) says that before the age of six or seven, children do not focus on their own sexual constancy⁽³⁾.

While acquiring their sexual roles, children pass through certain well-defined stages, as in other developmental progressions. But the progress through these stages differs for each child. However, as shown below, the succession always remains the same during the progress through the stages^(4,5).

First Stage (0-18 months): From birth, a child continously hears descriptions for girls and boys such as "my sweet girl, my lion-like boy." By this way the parents begin to form different environments for girls and boys.

Second Stage (18 months- age of 3): In this stage, children learn the descriptions related to girl/boy genders. Related with this they can show their differences of sexuality by their appearances related to the difference of sexuality. Thus children begin to perceive the concept of "sexual identity".
Third Stage (Age of 4-6): The main point in this stage is; the boys believe that they will be boys and the girls believe that they will be girls forever.

Fourth Stage (Age of 4-8): This stage is the one in which the meaning of the continuity of sexuality is totally formed. This concept means that the children accept the continuity of sexuality and that it will not change in spite of their clothes, appearance, activities or personal wishes.

Fifth Stage (Age of 6-8): In this stage the identifying process continues and the children themselves begin to use terms related to the opposite sex such as "boys are aggressive, girls are nice."

In the sexual role-acquiring stages explained above, the features such as family, education, culture, socio-economic level, visual and written media are important⁽⁶⁾.

Family and environment play important roles in the development of children. The children always watch what their mothers and fathers do and then imitate them. In families with only one parent the children watch either their mother's or father's sexual role behaviour. These single-parent children learn that boys and girls do similar work. Some families choose traditional chores for their children to do (for example girls can wash the dishes and boys can take the garbage outside)⁽⁷⁾.

Children also take their brothers or sisters as a model. The children generally imitate their brothers and sisters, especially their elder brothers' and sisters' actions and behaviours. Sisters continuously tell each other what they do and how they do it. Sisters teach each other what they should do in certain circumstances⁽⁷⁾.

Besides the family, friends also serve as models for acquiring the sex role. Resembling the brother and sister relationships, friends also influence the behaviour and views of the children. Especially in primary school, children generally prefer to play with children of the same sex.

Visual and written media can also be used as a means of acquiring sex role. Especially television affects the children's social and anti-social behaviours. During their growth, the children enlarge their information repertoires very fast. The children get information about the world they live in and have different experiences by means of television. Television, radio, magazines and computers contain examples of female and male sexes and show explicitly the concepts of a woman being nice and a man being strong.

On television, the "woman" is usually shown as a housewife, mother, secretary or nurse, while the "man" is shown as a husband, father, athlete or big workman. The children, besides having their own sexual preferences, make up the role suitable to their own gender by putting together the information that they acquired from the met behaviours⁽⁸⁾.

Kolbe and Meuhling (1995;50-59) in their research determined that television advertisements have a direct contribution in defining the children's sex roles⁽⁹⁾.

Many researchers in this subject dispute the sexuality of man. As a result of these arguments, it is pointed out that mentally handicapped children and normal children follow the same sequence in their stages of sexual progression. However, mentally handicapped individuals, owing to their mental maturity level, go through these sexual progression periods more slowly than their normal peers⁽¹⁰⁾.

It is thought that mentally handicapped children and teenagers have limited information in sexual subjects, which may cause problems in their behaviours, both for themselves and for their environment⁽¹¹⁾.
Acceptance of the sexuality of mentally handicapped children is realized as the children evolve sexually.

Although the parents seem to accept this reality, in practice they experience problems. It is thought that once they accept this reality, the role of the parents is very important in the sexual progression of the mentally handicapped children (10). As the mental maturity levels of these children differ, they have very little chance to take as a model their mothers and fathers, to get information from their friends, to observe, to develop suitable social and sexual behaviour and to acquire experience. In addition to this, they have limited ability to evaluate the information they get, due to their limited level of reading. However, these children need to get support in sexual development, as in all development areas. For this reason it is very important that subjects concerning sexuality take place in their special education programmes. Lin (1991;23-36) in his study defends that mentally handicapped children can get sexual education. He defined that even mentally handicapped children may accept sexual roles in a happy way and that they can also get married⁽¹²⁾. McCabe (1993;157-170) remarks that, in the research made by Schulz and Adam (1987), they emphasized that the sexual training given to the mentally handicapped children is efficient on their acquiring sexual roles and learning other subjects appropriate to their age, such as pregnancy, marriage, etc.⁽¹³⁾.

Some families cannot fulfil their duty of raising and educating their children. In these cases the care and training of the children must be done by some institution. These children who live in institutions are called "children under protection." These children under protection are those who in some part of their lives have lived a long or short term deprivation or disorder, some traumatic or disturbing events that would threaten their physical, mental, moral or personal security. These children form a risk group in terms of healthy personal development^(14,15).

It is not possible to say that all needs of these children directed towards their total development areas are met. Especially their psychological needs are inadequately met. Therefore their personal development is not healthy. As is known, a healthy sexual development depends upon a healthy personal development⁽⁶⁾.

If the family is thought to be the most efficient model when acquiring a sexual role for normal developing children, this fact is insufficient for children under protection. The reason for this is that in their lives before they begin to live in the institution, or after they come to the institution, they face the phenomenon of not having a mother or a father to take as a model. As a result they cannot see a model in front of them with whom they can identify. However, Baran (1995) in his work remarks that children who have regular visitors to their institution have more chance to identify.

Besides their real families, other adults also play an important part in children acquiring a sexual role. But people working in the institutions cannot communicate one-to-one with each child in the institution. Nevertheless, the chances and experiences given to children in their early stages of socialization have great importance. The experiences that will be lived in Freud's "identity" process, crucial factors in the socialization process, affect the child in adopting his or her own sexual role and shaping behaviours. Baran (1995) in his research noted that the children under protection often have insufficient information about the sexual roles. For this reason, it is important that personnel throughout the institutional present their satisfaction with their own sexuality and present correct models to the children under protection⁽¹⁶⁾.

Sample and Model of Research
The study was made in the provincial centre of Ankara. Study participants included 36 children under protection, age of 5-6 from the institutions' nursery schools, 40 mentally handicapped children from private education centres of age 5-6 regarding their language development (according to the Denver Progressive Scanning Test), and 40 non-mentally handicapped children of age 5-6 from the pre-school education institutions. The children were selected by simple random sample method.
This research was made as a comparative type of research, descriptive in character.

Means of Data Collection
The means of data collection: Before the research, a questionnaire was filled out with information about the family and the facts that could affect the children's acquiring of sexual role. When filling these forms, the information about the families of the children under protection was taken from the children's records and the information concerning their acquisition of sexual role was taken from experts in child development and education. The information for mentally handicapped children and non-mentally handicapped children was supplied by their families.

Afterwards, the "SERLI" index has been applied to all the groups and later according to the "SERLI" score tables the scores have been calculated and the data evaluated statistically.

The Sex Role Learning Index (SERLI) has been made and used by Edelbrock & Sugawara (1978)(17). SERLI is a means of selecting a picture aiming at evaluating the acquiring of sexual role in children aged three to eight. SERLI is prepared to calculate the three dimensions explained below.

1-SRD (Sex Role Discrimination):
Sex role discrimination comprises the child's discovering of the sexual role models. This dimension has two sub-dimensions.
a-) Discovering the sexual role related to his or her own sexuality (SRDOwn).
b-) Discovering the sexual role related to the opposite sex (SRDOpposite).

In the context of these two sub-dimensions, children continuously hear the descriptions of girl-boy that are made for themselves, and with these descriptions they combine their own characteristics of sexual type. They realize how themselves and others are classified from the aspect of sexuality. As a result of this classification, in the direction of the society's traditions and customs, the behaviours appropriate to their sexual roles are taught to the children, beginning from the start of their lives. In SERLI the dimension of relating with a sexual role and the degree of classifying the roles are seen by distinguishing different pictures suitable to a child's own sexual role.

2- SRP (Sex Role Preferences):
The dimension of sex role preference includes determining the models of sex roles suitable with male and female behaviour. This dimension has two sub-dimensions:
a-) To prefer the sex role concerning childhood (SRPChild).
b-) To prefer the sex role concerning the adult period (SRPAdult).

Children imitate adults having the same sex and they adapt clothes, games and behaviours of this sex.

Sex roles cover clothes, professions, games, toys, room order and the whole life of a person. In the specializing period, the sex roles of children are reinforced by their families and other sources. The child learns the values, norms and expectations of his or her own and the opposite sex. In the SERLI determination of sex role preference, the score is tested by looking at the cards chosen by the child that are suitable to his or her own sex.

3- SRC (Sex Role Confirmation):
The child's adoption of a sex role is related to the adaptation to sex, also defined as the tendency to determine his or her own gender.

Mothers and fathers have to present to their children that they are satisfied with their own sexual identities. Thus, by looking at these models, the children can healthily adopt their own sex roles.

The SERLI dimension of adoption of a gender by a child shows the degree of the child's own choice of decisions related to which sex is appropriate to the cultural patterns.

There are two sub-dimensions of confirmation of a sex role:
a-) The confirmation of a sex role concerning to the childhood (SRCChild).
b-) The confirmation of a sex role concerning to the adult period (SRCAdult).

In the process of measuring this development, the research looks at the test-retest correlation of credibility and the scores in the dimension of discriminating the gender. The score to discriminate the gender that belongs to own gender is 0.69, to discriminate the gender that belongs to the opposite is 0.65.

In the dimension of preferring the genders; the score of preference of the gender that belongs to the childhood period is 0.90, while that of preferring the gender that belongs to the adult period is 0.84. In the sex role confirmation dimension, the score in confirmation of the gender that belongs to the childhood period is 0.69, and confirmation of the gender that belongs to the adult period is 0.51.

The SERLI index contains 30 black-and-white photographs collected in 3 parts.
1-) Child figures
2-) Adult figures
3-) Objects

The photographs of child and adult figures are similar, but show different activities. In the photographs for the girls there are representations of stereotypical women and women's activities (ironing, sweeping, feeding etc.), while photographs for the boys include only representations of stereotypical men and men's activities (soldier, holding pickaxe, police etc.)

In the part of child and adult figures there are 10 activities. Half of these activities include manly figures and the other part includes the feminine figures. The part of objects contains 20 photographs of objects that are inside the activities of the child and adult figures.

The child figures for boys show activities related to carpentry, boats and playing football and objects related to these such as hammers/nails, paddle and ball/goal.

In the part of the adult figures for boys there are depictions of figures like carpenter, police and soldier, with objects related to these such as; saw, badge and rifle.

Application: When beginning to implement the index, the researcher puts the three boxes side by side; the first box is named as the "boy" in which there are pictures of boys, the last one is named as the "girl" in which there are pictures of girls and the one in the middle is named as "both girl and boy". Afterwards, sitting in front of the child, the researcher asked the child to choose some pictures and tell the researcher whether these pictures belong to the "girls," "boys" or "both girls and boys" category. The pictures of objects are shown to the child one by one. At the same time as showing the pictures, a question is asked such as "this is a ......picture. Who uses this? Girls or boys or both of them?" All verbal explanations made to the children remained the same throughout the study. After the child verbally answered the questions the related picture was given to him/her to put the picture into whichever of the three boxes he/she thought it belonged to. After the pictures were put in the boxes, the "girls" and "boys" boxes are put out of sight. The third box "both girls and boys" was the box with pictures chosen according to both sexes.

These pictures were again shown to each child, taken out one by one from the box. While showing them the question was asked, "This picture is for both girls and for boys, but which one uses this picture more, girls or boys?"

After the objects part was finished, pictures showing figures having the same sex with the child from different ages (girl-female) and doing the same activities were put on the table.

To make comparison between the groups, the findings obtained were analyzed statistically by using the non-parametric Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests.

The results obtained in this study, planned to determine the differences of the sex role acquisition between mentally disabled children, normal developing children and children under protection, is discussed within light of similar studies in this area.

When the points of the sample group of mentally handicapped children, normal developing children and children under protection from the SERLI sub-dimensions are compared with the Mann-Whitney U test according to the sexes, it is seen that the points that girls and boys got from the SERLI sub-dimensions have a meaningful difference only taking into consideration the points they have got from SRDOpposite SUB-DIMENSION. But looking at the points taken from other sub-criteria such as SRDOwn, SRPChild, SRPAdult, SRCChild and SRCAdult, it is seen that there is not a significant difference between the sexes. By looking at table (1), it can be said that girls can differentiate the sex roles belonging to the opposite sex better than boys. Fisher (1990; 291-303) in their study concerning plays and games emphasized that girls learn to differentiate the sex roles and they can prefer the sex roles by playing games and by playing with toys related to housework⁽¹⁸⁾. However, Pomerleau and friends (1990;359-367) in their research, showed that the families assist their daughters to gain their sex roles by buying dolls, and other toys related with housework⁽¹⁹⁾. On the other hand, Black, Johnson, Kline and Lee (2000) in their research emphasized that boys choose the pictures appropriate for their sexes and they differentiate sex roles⁽²⁰⁾. In a similar study made by Henshaw, Kelly and Gratton (1992), they emphasized that the boys have chosen the games, activities, colours and professions suitable to their sexes⁽²¹⁾.

The findings in Table 1 in this research show that there is not a significant difference between the girls and boys according to the criteria of SRDOwn, SRPChild, SRPAdult, SRCChild and SRCAdult. But as remarked YELKEN (1996); Waldman (1984) in his study emphasizes that girls are less successful compared to boys in defining their own sex roles⁽²²⁾. Also Leinbach, Hart and Fagot (1997;107-130) in their study about the boys' sex role behaviours show that boys scored much higher than girls related to the items concerning their own sex roles⁽²³⁾. On the contrary, Edelbrock and Sugawara (1978;614-623) have emphasized that girls choose the activities suitable to their sex more easily than boys⁽¹⁷⁾.

When Table 2 is examined according to the SERLI Scores of Normal Developing Children, Mentally Handicapped Children and Children Under Protection it is seen that between these groups the only difference concerns the SRDChild sub-test. The scores taken from other sub-criteria such as SRDOwn, SRDOpposite, SRPChild, SRPAdult, and SRCAdult show that there is not a significant difference between these groups.

When Table 3 is examined; it is seen that the scores that normal developing children and mentally handicapped children have taken from SERLI does not show a significant change, taking into consideration all the criteria. In this study it is seen that between the normal developing children and mentally handicapped children there is not a difference in respect of the criteria of Table 3. But in the study made by Çetin (2002) it is seen that there is a statistically significant difference between the normal developing girls and mentally handicapped girls, in respect of the criteria SRDOpposite, SRPChild and SRCChild. In the same study, it is found that there is a statistically significant difference between the normal developing boys and mentally handicapped boys in respect of the sub-criteria of SRDOwn, SRPChild and SRCChild⁽²⁴⁾.

The results of Table 4 show that there is a significant difference between the scores taken from the SRDOpposite and SRCChild sub-criteria of the Normal Developing Children and Children Under Protection. It is also seen that there is not a significant difference of scores that these groups have taken from the other sub-criteria. Bardwell and friends (1986;275-281), in a study on 5-year-old children going to preschool, found that the education level of mothers and fathers have effect on their children's gaining a sex role⁽²⁵⁾. Similarly, Stevensen and Black (1988;793-814) have shown that there is a difference between the children growing up with a father against the children growing up without a father, in respect of gaining a sex-role. The findings obtained in these studies, and the finding in this study of a difference in gaining sex role of children under protection and children growing up with their mothers and fathers, show parallelism to each other⁽²⁶⁾. The characteristics of children under protection gaining sex role differ from those of normal developing children, and the difference can be explained as the effect of parental behaviours on the acquisition of a sex role by children.

When the results of Table 5 are examined, the scores that the Mentally Handicapped Children and Children Under Protection taken from SRCChild sub-criterion shows a statistically significant difference. Between the scores that have been taken from other sub-criteria there are not significant differences, such as the difference between the normal developing children and the children under protection. The difference between the mentally handicapped children and children under protection is said to be caused as a result of the children under protections' being separated from their mothers and fathers.

* p<0.05, significance level

p<0. 05, significance level

p<0. 05, significance level

p<0. 05, significance level

p<0. 05, significance level

The results of the research indicate that only the SRDOpposite sub-criterion shows a significant difference from the scores that girls and boys have taken from SERLI Sub-Criteria.

Taking into consideration the SERLI scores of normal developing children, mentally handicapped children and children under protection, between these groups there is a difference only in terms of SRCChild sub-test.

It is seen that normal developing children and mentally handicapped children's SERLI scores does not show any significant difference from each other in terms of all criteria.

It is found that the scores taken from the SRDOpposite and SRCChild sub-criteria show significant difference in terms of normal developing children and children under protection.

It is seen that, between the scores of mentally handicapped children and children under protection from SRCChild sub-criterion, there is a statistically significant difference.

When the findings listed above are examined, it can be seen that the behaviours of the mothers and fathers and environmental factors have effect on gaining sex role. In this context, the children under protection, who are at a disadvantage in terms of environmental factors, have to be supported in the subject of gaining sex role. The institutions giving service to these children must take this need into consideration when forming their programmes in order to support the development of these children.

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