Family meals are occasions for socializing children to gender roles and the symbolic meaning of food and eating. One of the relevant symbolic meaning of food concerns its gender connotation: Meat, especially red meat, is considered the quintessential male food, whereas fruit, vegetables, dairy, desserts, and fish are considered typical female food. These food-gender associations have been mainly investigated in adulthood; only a few studies involved children. The present study examined preschool children’s explicit and implicit food-gender stereotypes, their stereotypical food likings, and mothers’ influence in the transmission of such stereotypes. A group of 137 Italian preschool children (4–6 years-old) performed two tasks: (a) an Implicit Association Test (IAT) measuring the association between meat and vegetable dishes and male and female faces and (b) a “waiter’s game” in which they assigned images of different foods to men, women, boys, and girls depicted on cards. Moreover, they were asked to indicated their likings for the food employed in the waiter’s game. Mothers were given a questionnaire assessing gender-based stereotypes about food and eating habits. The results showed that boys already associated meat with men and vegetables with women at the implicit level and expressed a preference for masculine foods. Such stereotyping did not emerge at the implicit level for girls or at an explicit level for either girls or boys. Moreover, mothers’ attitudes and behaviors predicted, at least in part, their children’s food-gender explicit stereotypes but not children’s implicit stereotypes. Stereotyped food likings were predicted by children’s explicit stereotypes.

中文翻译：

---

男孩的食物和女孩的食物：学龄前儿童是否对食物持有性别刻板印象？

家庭聚餐是让孩子了解性别角色以及食物和饮食的象征意义的场合。食物的相关象征意义之一与其性别内涵有关：肉类，尤其是红肉，被认为是典型的男性食物，而水果、蔬菜、乳制品、甜点和鱼类则被认为是典型的女性食物。这些食物与性别的关联主要在成年期进行了调查；只有少数研究涉及儿童。本研究调查了学龄前儿童外显和内隐的食物性别刻板印象、他们刻板的食物喜好以及母亲在这些刻板印象传播中的影响。一组 137 名意大利学龄前儿童（4-6 岁）执行了两项任务：(a) 内隐联想测试 (IAT) 测量肉类和蔬菜菜肴与男性和女性面孔之间的关联，以及 (b) 一种“服务员的游戏”，他们将不同食物的图像分配给所描绘的男性、女性、男孩和女孩在卡片上。此外，他们还被要求表明他们对服务员游戏中使用的食物的喜好。母亲们接受了一份问卷，评估基于性别的关于食物和饮食习惯的刻板印象。结果表明，男孩已经在内隐层面将肉类与男性和蔬菜与女性联系起来，并表达了对男性食物的偏好。这种刻板印象既没有出现在女孩的隐性层面，也没有出现在女孩或男孩的显性层面。此外，母亲的态度和行为至少可以部分预测，他们孩子的食物性别明确的刻板印象，而不是孩子的隐性刻板印象。儿童明确的刻板印象预测了刻板的食物喜好。