The study of children's sex-role attitudes and their relationship to Saturday morning cartoons

Includes bibliographical references (pages 67-70)Women's roles in society have grown and become more\ud extensive in the last few decades. Society has accepted,\ud if not embraced, women's changing roles. However, notwithstanding\ud this outwardly acceptance, society as a whole\ud still maintains a ''nonconscious" ideology of appropriate\ud roles determined by sex. The media, being so pervasive,\ud are a mechanism by which this ideology is perpetuated.\ud A study was conducted to determine if Saturday\ud morning cartoons can have an immediate affect on\ud children's sex-role attitudes and beliefs. Two cartoons\ud were selected after viewing and coding the networks'\ud Saturday morning cartoon offerings for sex appropriate\ud behaviors (i.e., deference, aggression, and so forth) for four consecutive Saturdays. One cartoon was selected for\ud being very stereotypical. The other cartoon was selected\ud for its nonstereotypical portrayal of the sexes. Children\ud in the first, third, and fifth grades of a private school\ud were divided into three groups. Group 1 was the control\ud group. Group 2 viewed the stereotyped cartoon while\ud Group 3 was shown the nonstereotyped cartoon. The\ud children then answered a questionnaire regarding their\ud beliefs and attitudes about various activities that boys\ud and girls do. The results imply that the children's beliefs about\ud women's roles are more flexible than thay are regarding\ud men's roles. Viewers of the nonstereotypical cartoon felt\ud that fewer women should be deferent that the control\ud group. They also believed that there were more aggressive\ud women than did the control group and fewer nurturant women\ud than did the control group. While viewers of the\ud stereotyped cartoon believed there were more nurturant\ud women than did those in the control group, there were no\ud significant findings regarding men's roles. The findings\ud suggest that the cartoons viewed can have an immediate influence on children's attitudes and beliefs regarding some accepted feminine sex-roles