--- title: Gender Stereotypes: Kids Believe Them By Age 10 description: A study on gender stereotypes and gender roles in 15 countries shows that they set in globally by age 10. canonical: https://time.com/4948607/gender-stereotypes-roles/ author: Belinda Luscombe article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-20T15:35:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:30:09.229Z article:section: Health og:title: Kids Believe Gender Stereotypes By Age 10, Global Study Says og:description: A survey of adolescents in 15 countries shows how universal gender norms are og:url: https://time.com/4948607/gender-stereotypes-roles/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77af9440475b34eb/6988de75196cf4596a041fea/gettyimages-a0045-000069.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1732 og:image:height: 974 og:image:alt: Children at Birthday Party og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kids Believe Gender Stereotypes By Age 10, Global Study Says twitter:description: A survey of adolescents in 15 countries shows how universal gender norms are twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77af9440475b34eb/6988de75196cf4596a041fea/gettyimages-a0045-000069.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kids Believe Gender Stereotypes by Age 10, Global Study Finds > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Sep 20, 2017 3:35 PM UTC  Children at Birthday Party Children at Birthday Party Nick Daly—Getty Images  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Sep 20, 2017 3:35 PM UTC In almost every society, from Baltimore to Beijing, boys are told from a young age to go outside and have adventures, while young girls are encouraged to stay home and do chores. In most cultures, girls are warned off taking the initiative in any relationship and by 10 years old, already have the distinct impression that their key asset is their physical appearance. These are the findings of [a new six-year study of gender expectations](http://www.jahonline.org/issue/S1054-139X%2817%29X0014-1) around the world, which gathered data on 10- to 14-year-olds from 15 different countries of varying degrees of wealth and development. The research teams interviewed 450 adolescents and their parents. And they found a surprising—and somewhat depressing—uniformity of attitudes about what it takes to be a boy or a girl. “We found children at a very early age—from the most conservative to the most liberal societies—quickly internalize this myth that girls are vulnerable and boys are strong and independent,” says Robert Blum, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and the director of the Global Early Adolescent Study. While there’s nothing wrong with protecting young girls or encouraging boys to be brave, absent any balancing messages, these expectations become restrictive “gender straitjackets” that can have negative consequences, say the researchers, particularly for girls. What starts as “protection” can become an expectation that girls should accede to the demands of others rather than making their own choices or taking risks. It has long been suggested that during adolescence, the world expands for boys and shrinks for girls, but the new study, which looked at kids in Bolivia, Belgium, Burkina Faso, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Scotland, South Africa and the U.S., emphasizes how global that phenomenon is and how young it sets in. **MORE**: [Elementary School Girls Think Boys Are Smarter: Study](http://motto.time.com/4651720/elementary-school-girls-smarter-boys-study/) In fact, the researchers suggest that some programs aimed at redressing gender imbalance that are targeted at 15-year-olds might actually be more useful for a younger age group. Getting preteen kids to rethink why they believe males and females should behave a certain way may even be protective of their physical health. “Adolescent health risks are shaped by behaviors rooted in gender roles that can be well established in kids by the time they are ten or 11 years old,” says another of the Johns Hopkins researchers, Kristin Mmari, an associate professor in the department of public health. For example, boys may try to build their social status as risk-takers with such unhealthy behaviors as fighting, taking drugs or smoking. And no matter where they are, girls’ bodies, and others’ attitudes to them, are psychologically burdensome. “In New Delhi, the girls talked about their bodies as a big risk that needs to be covered up,” said Mmari, “while in Baltimore girls told us their primary asset was their bodies and they need to look appealing—but not too appealing.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4948607/gender-stereotypes-roles/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4948607/gender-stereotypes-roles/"},"headline":"Kids Believe Gender Stereotypes by Age 10, Global Study Finds","datePublished":"2017-09-20T15:35:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:30:09.229Z","description":"A six-year 15-country survey of adloescents shows how universal gender norms are","url":"https://time.com/4948607/gender-stereotypes-roles/","keywords":["Mental Health/Psychology","gender","girls","Stereotypes","study","Global","health","boys"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77af9440475b34eb/6988de75196cf4596a041fea/gettyimages-a0045-000069.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Belinda Luscombe","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77af9440475b34eb/6988de75196cf4596a041fea/gettyimages-a0045-000069.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Children at Birthday Party","caption":"Children dress up","creditText":"Nick Daly—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mental-healthpsychology/","name":"Mental Health/Psychology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4948607/gender-stereotypes-roles/","name":"Kids Believe Gender Stereotypes by Age 10, Global Study Finds"}}]}] ```