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About the Project

In January, 2006 the Ford Foundation awarded us funding to develop a dynamic systems approach for studying the emergence of sex-related differences in child behavior. From the perspective of dynamic systems theory, we argue that sex-typed behaviors come into being through a process of dynamic interactions between children and their environment-a function of both biological and social influences. Accordingly, in the current project we are conducting detailed analyses of four infants (two boys and two girls) and their mothers in weekly sessions from ages two to fourteen months. Through these analyses were are obtaining a rich description of the development of activity level, vocalization, and play behavior, three behaviors for which sex-typed differences have previously been reported in the first three years of life.