Observations of the Emerging Sexual Identity of Three and Four Year Old Children—With Emphasis on Female Sexual Identity

Observations of nursery school children did not seem to support the classical psychoanalytic view that girls are psychologically equivalent to boys until the onset of the castration complex. Beginning at about age 3, prior to the emergence of behaviour indicative of the oedipal stage, girls actively choose female play partners, engage in group play with other girls and prefer activities distinctly different from those of boys. The findings seem consistent with Edgcumbe's (1976) and Edgcumbe & Burgner's (1975) formulation of a pre-oedipal, phallic-narcissistic stage, a major feature of which is the shaping of a sexual identity; and with Parens et al. (1976) notion of a protogenital stage in which the girl's 'dominantly feminine disposition' (p. 83) comes to the fore. Penis envy, the possible manifestations of which were observed later, did not antedate or accompany these developments. The authors, in fact, were impressed with the apparent confidence of the 3-4 year old girls as compared with boys and speculate that being the same sex as the mother may be a contributant. They were further impressed by the role of the small group in the consolidation

of girls' sexual identity and describe the evolution of nursery school girls' group behaviour as it seems to relate to the development of sexual identity.