Rewrite A scale to determine gender attitudes of primary school fourth grade students: a scale development study as a headline for a science magazine post, using no more than 8 words

In the present study, in which the Scale to Determine Gender Role Attitudes of Primary School Fourth Grade Students was developed, and its validity and reliability were examined, it was determined that the scale was a valid and reliable tool to measure the attitudes of primary school 4th grade students.

Expert opinion was received for the content validity of the scale, and its construct validity was ensured with the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The results of the exploratory factor analysis demonstrated that factor loadings of the items 12, 28, and 31 were below 0.30 or negative; thus, these items were removed from the scale. The results of the principal components analysis demonstrated that the 37-item single-factor structure explained 35.67% of the total variance. The goodness-of-fit values of the scale confirm its single-factor structure. The scale consists of 37 items (Appendix 1) and a single dimension. The KR-20 reliability coefficient was calculated as 0.90. The scale is scored as “True (1 point)”, “Undecided (0 points)” and “Wrong (0 points)”. High scores obtained from the scale indicate that children have positive gender role attitudes.

All the data obtained from the present study indicate that the scale developed in the study is valid and reliable tool in determining the attitudes of fourth grade students towards gender. However, the fact that the study was conducted only with fourth grade students is considered as a limitation. It is recommended that subsequent studies should be conducted with different samples and age groups.

Determining children’s gender role attitudes at an early age is very important for social development. Gender stereotypes can limit the social, academic, and professional orientations of children, especially in primary school. For instance, because of gender stereotypes, while boys think that preschool teaching is a female profession, girls do not prefer to become police officers in the future although that is their heart’s desire. While boys are more directed to football as a sport, girls are directed to sports such as volleyball. Girls are more interested in an important art form such as ballet (Çetin Gündüz and Tarhan, 2017). In this case, it negatively affects the development of a country in areas such as education, sports, and art. Therefore, the development of a country is only possible with the existence of a society that is sensitive to gender equality. For a society that is sensitive to gender equality, children should be raised without gender stereotypes. Determining the gender role attitudes of primary school children will raise awareness of gender, will guide children correctly in areas such as education, sports, and art, and will contribute to the preparation of intervention programs.