For cultural psychologists and discursive psychologists, there is no such thing as just “a child.” What it means to be “a child” is always dependent on both the immediate context and the larger context. Moreover, many psychologists who are interested in gender issues prefer to talk about “boys” and “girls” rather than “children.” In most societies, a child's sex categorization plays a decisive role in his or her life, although its specific influences depend on the local situation. In this chapter, we describe research by cultural psychologists concerning such influences on girls and boys as they move from childhood to young adulthood.

Cultural psychologists and discursive psychologists who study children and childhoods have been especially interested in children's identity development and social development. Such psychologists take it as given that the ideals and developmental goals for children are organized and negotiated within specific societies and historical epochs (DeLoache and Gottlieb, 2000; Gulbrandsen, 2006a). They have investigated the cultural logics of childrearing, asking what kind of child do different cultures and subcultures strive to produce. Such researchers often compare different social groups or different cultures, or they study the socialization of boys as compared to girls.