作为一种重要的社会类别，性别已成为代表人类身份的主要指标（Coyle & Liben, 2016），并影响着个体社会生活的方方面面，包括能力发展、个性特征和行为活动等。近年来，随着女性社会地位的提升和社会上传统性别观念的改善，“缩小性别差距、实现性别平等”正逐步成为一个世界范围内的重要议题。因此，个体如何发展“性别化”的自我及性别分化的形成原因也得到了各领域研究者的广泛关注。

儿童自呱呱坠地起就获得了“男孩/女孩”的性别标签，并逐渐形成性别化的个人特征，例如，3岁起，儿童就开始在衣着、玩具游戏、同伴选择等领域表现出了性别分化现象，这些性别分化也反映在儿童的角色扮演游戏中，表现为对不同职业的着装、内容等的模仿以及兴趣，从而出现了儿童早期职业兴趣的性别差异（e.g., Green, Bigler, & Catherwoo, 2004; Martin, Fabes, Evans, & Wyman, 1999; Weisgram, Bigler, & Liben, 2010）。考虑到儿童时期发展双性化特征的重要性和早期职业兴趣对其今后生涯发展的作用（e.g., Boldizar & Janet, 1991; Woods & Hampson, 2010），了解儿童职业兴趣的性别分化特点并探索其影响因素具有重要意义。研究表明，包括职业兴趣在内的儿童性别分化的偏好会受到环境中性别信息的影响（e.g., Coyle & Liben, 2016; Martin & Dinella, 2012; Martin, Ruble & Szkrybaloet, 2002），且个体有关性别的态度和观念（如职业性别刻板印象）对其职业兴趣的形成和塑造也发挥着重要作用（e.g., Dinella, Fulcher, & Weisgram, 2014; Wood & Eagly, 2012），因此，本研究通过三个子研究，系统考察儿童自身性别化偏好在职业兴趣上的表现，并进一步探讨性别信息对儿童职业兴趣性别分化的影响，进而厘清职业性别刻板印象在其中的中介作用，从而了解儿童职业兴趣性别分化的形成原因和机制，为父母和教师创设性别平等的成长环境，丰富儿童的职业兴趣，促进不同性别儿童的公平、全面发展提供启示。

研究一选取了4-5岁儿童147名、6-7岁儿童174名、8-9岁儿童98名，共计419名4-9岁儿童，通过问卷调查，比较不同年龄阶段男孩和女孩对男、女性职业的兴趣差异，探究中国儿童职业兴趣性别分化的具体表现和发展特点。结果发现，我国4-9岁儿童在职业兴趣方面均表现出了性别分化现象，具体表现为：(1)男孩对男性职业的兴趣高于女孩，而女孩对女性职业的兴趣高于男孩；(2)男孩对男性职业的兴趣高于对女性职业的兴趣，而女孩对女性职业的兴趣高于对男性职业的兴趣。

研究二选取了4-5岁儿童52名、6-7岁儿童80名、8-9岁儿童50名，共计182名4-9岁儿童，通过实验，比较不同年龄阶段男孩和女孩在呈现不同类型（姓名、特质、活动）、不同内容（男性、女性）的性别信息时对新颖职业的兴趣，探究性别信息对儿童职业兴趣性别分化的影响作用。结果发现：(1)不同内容的信息会使儿童对新颖职业的兴趣产生性别分化，即呈现男性信息时，男孩的职业兴趣高于女孩，呈现女性信息时，女孩的职业兴趣高于男孩；呈现男性信息时，男孩的职业兴趣高于呈现女性信息时，而女孩在呈现女性信息时的兴趣显著高于呈现男性信息时；(2)性别信息对儿童职业兴趣性别分化的影响仅在6-7岁和8-9岁儿童上显著，4-5岁儿童在呈现男性信息和女性信息时的职业兴趣均不存在性别差异；(3)不同类型性别信息的作用有所差异，表现为呈现男性特质和男性活动时，男孩的职业兴趣显著高于女孩，而呈现其他信息时儿童的职业兴趣不存在性别差异；男孩的职业兴趣在呈现男性姓名和女性姓名时无显著差异。

研究三在研究二的基础上，进一步考察性别信息对儿童职业兴趣的作用机制，即职业性别刻板印象在其中的作用。结果发现：(1)呈现男、女性特质和男、女性活动信息时，儿童对新颖职业建立了刻板印象，认为职业应当由男性或女性从事；(2)对于6-9岁男孩，儿童的职业性别刻板印象在性别信息对职业兴趣的影响中起完全中介作用，即指向男性的信息会使其对职业形成男性刻板印象，从而职业兴趣更高，相反，女性信息使其将职业与女性联系在一起，认为应由女性从事，进而表现出较低的职业兴趣；对于6-9岁女孩，性别信息对职业兴趣的影响是直接产生的，未通过使其形成相应的性别刻板印象来实现。

上述结果表明，学前儿童的职业兴趣已经受到其自身性别和社会文化所认可的“某种职业适合男性和女性从事”传统观念的影响和限制，表现为儿童早期职业兴趣的性别分化现象，且6-9岁儿童的职业兴趣会受到环境中性别信息的影响，最后，性别信息对6-9岁男孩职业兴趣的影响是通过使其对职业产生男性或女性刻板印象实现的。这启示家庭、学校和社会在为儿童开展职业启蒙和教育时也应当注重其中蕴含的性别线索，避免单一性别指向的信息使儿童建立性别刻板印象，限制其兴趣和相关活动的广泛性和丰富性。

As one of the most important social categories, gender has become a core aspect of human identity (Coyle & Liben, 2016), and affects all aspects of individual’s life, such as ability development, personality characteristics and behavior and activities. Recently, with the promotion of women's social status and the improvement of traditional gender concepts in society, Narrowing the gender gap and achieving gender equality has gradually become an important issue worldwide. Therefore, how individual develop the "gendered self" and how the gender differentiation take shape have attracted extensive attention.

Children show gender differences in clothing, toy play, partner selection and career preference from the age of 3 (e.g., Green, Bigler, & Ctherwoo, 2004; Martin, Fabes, Evans, & Wyman, 1999; Weisgram, Bigler, & Liben, 2010). Considering the importance of androgynous characteristics in childhood and the role of occupational interests in their later careers (e.g., Boldizar & Janet, 1991; Woods & Hampson, 2010), it is of great significance to pay attention to the gender differentiation of children's occupational interests. Studies have shown that children's gendered preferences are influenced by gendered information in the environment (e.g., Coyle & Liben, 2016; Martin & Dinella, 2012; Martin, Ruble & Szkrybaloet, 2002), Moreover, individuals'  gender stereotypes also play a strong role in the formation of their occupational interests (e.g., Dinella, Fulcher, & Weisgram, 2014; Wood & Eagly, 2012). Therefore, through three sub-studies, this study systematically investigated children's gender-typed interest in occupation and its gender differences, and further explore the influence of gendered information's on children's occupational interest, and clarify the role of occupational gender stereotypes, so as to understand the causes of gender differentiation of children's occupational interest and its mechanism, and inspire parents and teachers to create gender-equal environment, enrich children's occupational interest and promote children's all-round development.

In study 1, 147 children aged 4 to 5, 174 children aged 6 to 7 and 98 children aged 8 to 9 were recruited to explore the development characteristics of Chinese children's gender typing of self in the occupational field by comparing different age groups’ boys' and girls' interests in male and female occupations. The results found that children aged 4 to 9 showed gendered preference in occupations, and this phenomenon did not differ in the age groups of the children. Specifically, (1) boys were more interested in male occupations than girls, while girls were more interested in female occupations than boys; (2) boys were more interested in male occupation than female occupation, while girls were more interested in female occupation than male occupation..

Study 2 compared the interest of boys and girls at different ages in novel occupations when the story present different types (name, trait, activity) of gendered information (oriented male or female) in 52 children aged 4-5, 80 children aged 6-7, and 50 children aged 8-9. The results showed that (1) gendered information could make children's interest in novel occupation differentiated by gender, specifically, children showed higher interest if the orientation of gendered information matched their own gender, and boys were more interested in the novel occupation than girls when presented male information, while girls showed higher interest than boys when female information was presented; (2) the influence of gendered information was only significant for children aged 6-7 and 8-9, while there was no gender difference in the interest of children aged 4-5 when presenting male or female information; (3) the main effect of children's gender was only showed in the presence of male characteristic and male activity, and there was no significant difference in boys' interest when male and female names were presented.

Study 3 explored the mechanism of gendered information’s impact on children’s occupational interest, especially the role of occupational gender stereotypes. The results showed that (1) when presented with information about male characteristic and male activity, children believed that only men should pursue the novel occupation, and when presented with female characteristic and female activity, children believed that the novel occupations should be engaged by women; (2) children’s occupational gender stereotypes played a complete mediating role between the gendered information and occupational interest, but this effect only existed in 6 to 9 years old boys.

In conclusion, the results of this study showed that the occupational interest of preschool children has been impacted by their own gender and the concept about which occupations were appropriate for men or women in social culture. And the gender differentiation of occupational interest of children aged 6-9 could be affected by the gendered information in the environment. Finally, the effect of gendered information on occupational interest of 6-9 years old boys was achieved by creating occupational gender stereotypes.