CONSTRUCTING GENDER IDENTITY IN EARLY CHILDREN (A Survey at Kabupaten Jember)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe how the parents construct the gender identity to their young children (4 – 6 years old). The gender identity construction is the first step to deliver the consepts about a role based on their understanding of the identity. There are some ways for give a mindframe of the gender identity to their young children, such as choosing the play tool, playmates even their outfit stuff.
Using a survey model, this study was held in KabupatenJember. The informations were digging from 99 respondents from 6 kindergartens which laid at 4 districts that were Patrang, Kaliwates, Sumbersari and Ambulu. The samples were chosen by purposive random sampling. The data was collected by using questionnaire list and was analysed by a descriptive statistic.
The results described three types of the parents categories in constructing their children. 21 parents were biased in shaping the identity of the children. The biased means that the parents not always do the strict determination to their children according to the child sex. Meanwhile, there were 42 parents that gave the choice activities to their children based on their sex. There were 36 parents who constructed with activities that they thought appropriately to their child’s sex.

Keywords: Construct, early children, gender identity