The Journal of Genetic Psychology

Research and Theory on Human Development

ISSN: 0022-1325 (Print) 1940-0896 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vgnt20

Halloween Costume Choices: Reflections of

Gender Development in Early Childhood

Lisa M. Dinella

To cite this article: Lisa M. Dinella (2017): Halloween Costume Choices: Reflections
of Gender Development in Early Childhood, The Journal of Genetic Psychology, DOI:
10.1080/00221325.2017.1295223

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00221325.2017.1295223

Published online: 12 Apr 2017.

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THE JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY
, VOL. , NO. , –
http://dx.doi.org/./..

Halloween Costume Choices: Reflections of Gender Development in

Early Childhood
Lisa M. Dinella
Department of Psychology, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ, USA

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The author examined whether preschoolers’ Halloween costume choices Received  August 
reflect their gender development. The sample consisted of 110 (53 boys, 57 girls) Accepted  January 
infant through preschool-aged participants, and 1 parent of each child. Both
KEYWORDS
observational methodologies and parent-report surveys were used to assess femininity; gender
the gender-typed nature of children’s Halloween costumes, information about development; Halloween
the Halloween costume choice process, and about the children’s gender devel- costumes; masculinity
opment. Boys’ costumes were more masculine and girls’ costumes were more
feminine. Younger children’s costumes were consistently less gender typed
than the older children’s costumes were. Children whose parents chose their
Halloween costumes for them had Halloween costumes that were less gender
typed than did children who were involved in the Halloween costume decision-
making process. Moreover, children’s gender-typed play and desire to wear
gender-stereotyped clothes were related to the gender stereotyped nature of
their Halloween costume. Unexpectedly, gender typicality, a dimension of gen-
der identity, was not related to children’s Halloween costume choices. Overall,
the findings support that children’s Halloween costume choice is an indicator
of children’s gender development processes.

Halloween is an American tradition that has become increasingly popular in the last decade (Grannis,
2014). In 2012 approximately $1.1 billion was spent on children’s Halloween costumes, and retail statis-
tics indicate consumer spending for the holiday overall reached approximately $6.9 billion in 2013 (an
increase of more than 55% from 2005). As the popularity of the holiday has increased, concern about
the gender stereotypes represented in Halloween costumes has been noted in the media (Dinella, 2015;
Miller, 2015; Tabuchi, 2015). Consumer trends confirm that gender stereotyped costumes are consis-
tently popular for children, with highly gender-stereotyped princess costumes rated as the most pur-
chased costume for 9 years in a row and superhero costumes topping the charts repeatedly (Allen, 2014).
Further, opinion editorials reflect the growing concern about the sexualized nature of girls’ costumes and
the hypermasculinity of boys’ costumes currently on the market (Bologna, 2015; Valle, 2015).
Despite the recent media coverage of gender typing of Halloween costumes, the characteristics of chil-
dren’s Halloween costumes have largely been unexplored empirically. However, the few studies that have
been conducted confirm gender-typed trends exists. A content analysis of children’s costumes available
for purchase in 1997 revealed gender-typed trends in costumes being sold and a scarcity of gender-
neutral costumes (Nelson, 2000). Gender-typed trends in Halloween costumes were also documented
more recently as part of a content analysis investigating many genres of children’s products, such as cos-
tumes, toys, and Valentine’s Day cards (Murnen, Greenfield, Younger, & Boyd, 2016). More feminine and
hyperfeminine attributes were evident in female products than in male products, and significantly more

CONTACT Lisa M. Dinella ldinella@monmouth.edu Department of Psychology, Monmouth University,  Cedar Avenue,
West Long Branch, NJ .
©  Taylor & Francis
2 L. M. DINELLA

masculine and hypermasculine attributes were evident in male products than in female products. For
example, images of female sexual subordination (curved spine, bent knee, and head cant) were present
more in female products than in male products.
The gender-typed trends found in children’s products, such as toys, potentially expose boys and girls to
separate learning and social experiences. Research investigating children’s toys shows that so-called boys’
toys include vehicles, building toys, sports equipment, and weapons and are associated with competition,
violence, movement, and excitement (Blakemore & Centers, 2005). So-called girls’ toys include baby and
fashion dolls, domestic role play toys, and princess paraphernalia and are associated with a focus on
one’s appearance, social roles, and caretaking duties. Gender-typed toy play has been linked to gender
differentiation in children’s skill development (De Lisi & Wolford, 2002; Levine, Ratliff, Huttenlocher,
& Cannon, 2012; Li & Wong, 2016; Sherman & Zurrbriggen, 2014; Wolter, Glüer, & Hannover, 2014).
These trends, coupled with findings that the marketing of toys has become more gender typed over the
years (Sweet, 2013), raise concerns about the gender-typed nature of children’s early environments and
about Halloween costumes as a potential contributing factor.
The lack of information about children’s Halloween costume choices is also unexpected, given that
dressing in costume for Halloween is similar to pretend play activities such as house and domestic play,
fantasy play, and career role play (Fein, 1981). These types of activities have been found to correlate
positively with advantageous outcomes that persist throughout the lifespan, including positive inter-
personal and social outcomes (Harris, 2000; Lillard, Pinkham, & Smith, 2011; Wing, Gould, Yeates, &
Brierly, 1977), increased creativity (Schaefer, 1969), and even greater affinity to mathematics (Wolfgang,
Stannard, & Jones, 2001). Given the importance of pretend play, children’s Halloween costume choices
should be empirically investigated.
Empirical information about which costumes children choose to purchase and wear, rather than
which costumes are available to purchase in stores and catalogs, is also scarce. Little research exists on
gender development and children’s clothing choices in general, or about children’s self-presentation deci-
sions. This is surprising given the importance of messages about identity and social group memberships
sent via clothing choices (e.g., Feinberg, Mataro, & Burroughs, 1992; Frietas, Kaiser, & Hammidi, 1996),
and that calls have been made to focus on gender development domains beyond gender stereotyping,
activity preferences, and behaviors (Huston, 1983; Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006; Zosuls, Miller,
Ruble, Martin, & Fabes, 2011). In contrast to everyday dress-up play, children typically choose only one
costume for Halloween, and the chosen costume is highly visible to others, such as peers, teachers, and
neighbors. This forced-choice situation may compel children to choose a costume that is representative
of what is important to them but would also be acceptable to others in their social networks.
Based on constructivist theoretical approaches to gender cognitions, gender should play an increas-
ingly salient role in this decision-making process for children in early childhood (see Dinella, in press).
Gender schema theory (GST) posits that children create cognitive knowledge structures, or schemas,
representing their beliefs about gender (Bem, 1981; Martin & Halverson, 1981). These gender schemas
aid information processing, helping children categorize things as for girls, for boys, and thus for me or
not for me. GST notes that children only need a rudimentary understanding of gender to begin building
gender schemas, but as they mature they add to and develop their gender schemas to reflect their life
experiences (Martin & Halverson, 1981). Gender schemas have been found to influence children’s atten-
tion, memory, preferences, and behaviors (Weisgram, 2016). As children’s understanding of their own
gender develops, so do their superordinate schemas (broad schemas about each gender group) and own-
sex schemas (what children deem acceptable for themselves as a member of their own gender group).
Thus, children’s decisions about which Halloween costume to wear may be related to their cognitions
about the gendered nature of the costume.
Children’s Halloween costume choice in early childhood may also be reflecting a period of gender
rigidity that has been noted to accompany children’s acquisition of gender knowledge in early childhood
(Ruble et al., 2007). In fact, one of the few studies on gender and young children’s self-presentation choices
identified a period of gender appearance rigidity. Typically occurring between the ages of 4 and 3 years
old for girls and slightly later for boys, appearance rigidity is an artifact of children’s increasing identi-
fication with their gender group (Halim et al., 2013). While appearance rigidity in girls, coined as “the
 THE JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY 3

frilly pink dress phenomenon” (Halim et al., 2013, p. 1092) often manifests itself in western culture via
girls’ desire to wear only highly gender-typed clothing, boys’ appearance rigidity has been proposed to be
seen via a rejection of feminine clothing (Chiu et al., 2006; Hartley, 1959; Pickering & Repacholi, 2001).
Appearance rigidity has been shown to decline in girls when gender stability ceilings, eventually becom-
ing more flexible (Halim et al., 2013; Ruble et al., 2007), and boys’ behavioral rigidity is hypothesized to
decline after 6 years old (Halim et al., 2013). These behavioral trends throughout children’s early gen-
der development process may be reflected in children’s Halloween costume choices, with gender-typed
costumes being chosen more often when children are experiencing periods of rigidity versus periods of
more gender flexibility.
Most children aim for congruence between their interests and their schemas, so children would largely
be expected to choose Halloween costumes that would be congruent with the gender schemas they have
constructed. However, individual differences exist in how stringently children conform to their schemas,
and how stereotyped versus flexible their gender schemas are (Martin & Dinella, 2011). Children who
do not narrowly conform to gender schemas have been referred to as aschematic (Weisgram, 2016).
Moreover, although marketing trends have increasingly represented children’s toys as gender segregated
(i.e., classified as for boys or for girls), gender researchers have long recognized that gender is socially
constructed and that binary categories such as boy and girl do not accurately depict the complexities of
gender. Sandra Bem’s recognition that people can (and should) have both masculine and feminine per-
sonality traits has been identified as beginning a conceptual advance toward a nonbinary view of gender
(Dean & Tate, 2016). Since then, gender researchers have recognized the importance of assessing gender
in multidimensional ways rather than only investigating gender differences, which assume uniformity
within gender groups (Dean & Tate, 2016). Multidimensional approaches not only remove the binary
categorization of gender it also allows for the possibility that children may be gender typed in some
aspects of their gender development, but not others. Therefore, it is important to investigate dimensions
of gender such as how gender typical a person feels (Egan & Perry, 2001), their interest in gender-typed
activities, and their gendered appearance preferences (Halim et al., 2013). These aspects of children’s
gender development should be investigated when trying to understand the links between gender-typed
Halloween costumes choices and gender development.
Empirical research on children’s Halloween costumes is scarce, and even less research exists on
costume choice and gender development. One study confirmed the presence of developmental trends in
children’s gender-typed Halloween costume choices (Ogletree, Denton, & Williams, 1993). Paralleling
the developmental trends noted in constructivist gender schema theories (Martin & Dinella, 2002;
Serbin & Sprafkin, 1986), older children (first- and second-grade students) wore less gender-stereotyped
Halloween costumes than preschool and kindergarten children. Specifically, older boys wore less mascu-
line and more feminine costumes than younger boys did, and older girls chose more masculine and less
feminine costumes than younger girls did. Although this one study’s findings support the notion that
Halloween costume choice may be a visible artifact of children’s gender development, more information
is needed, particularly about Halloween costume choice in early childhood when gender development
is rapidly occurring.

Present study and hypotheses

The goal of the present study was to explore whether young children’s Halloween costumes reflect their
gender development during the infant through preschool years, which has yet to be studied. I hypoth-
esized that trends in children’s costume choices parallel the gender development processes posited by
gender cognitive theorists, and that Halloween costumes would be an artifact of the gender development
process. Understanding the role of gender development in children’s costume choice is important given
the recent increase in popularity of the holiday, and the concerns raised about the overt gender-typed
trends existing in the costumes currently available. Including infants through preschool aged children in
this study is a strength because allows for investigation of when children gain autonomy in their costume
choice, and how the gender-typed nature of Halloween costumes changes parallels gender development
processes.
4 L. M. DINELLA

Hypothesis 1. First, I proposed that children’s Halloween costumes would be gender typed, with boys
wearing costumes that were rated as more stereotypically for boys and girls wearing costumes that
were rated as more stereotypically for girls. I also expected that gender trends would exist in the
types of costumes chosen by the children (e.g., princesses, superheroes). Further, I expected gender
differences would exist in the explanations for why the costumes were chosen (e.g., boys more than
girls will have chosen costumes because they are scary [Ogletree et al., 1993]), and girls more than
boys would have chosen costumes because they are cute.
Hypothesis 2. Second, I hypothesized that the gender differences found in boys’ versus girls’ Halloween
costumes are a result of children increasingly using gender to guide choices and behaviors as they mas-
ter the understanding of gender (Martin & Dinella, 2011). Thus, I expected that as children develop
their gender cognitions, they would increasingly choose Halloween costumes that are for girls or for
boys, so age would be positively related to the gender-typed nature of children’s Halloween costumes.
Hypothesis 3. However, prior to any conclusions being drawn about children’s Halloween costume choice
being related to their gender development, it must be confirmed that the children (rather than their
parents) were responsible for the Halloween costume choice. I expected that children would assume a
larger decision-making role as they get older. Therefore, the third hypothesis is that age would be pos-
itively related to children being responsible for choosing their costumes. Additionally, I investigated
whether a typical age existed when children assumed this decision-making role.
Hypothesis 4. Although cognitive gender theorists posit that gender-based decisions and behaviors
increase as children master gender constructs, once children have mastered the concept of gender
they use gender less often as a categorization or decision-making tool, typically by 7 years old
(Serbin & Sprafkin, 1986). Thus, I expected that adults (who presumably have mastered the concept
of gender) would be less likely to use gender to guide their choice of Halloween costume for their
son or daughter than children do. The fourth hypothesis is that children whose parents chose their
Halloween costumes for them would have less gender-typed costumes than the children who chose
their own costumes.
Hypothesis 5. To further investigate whether preschoolers’ Halloween costume choices reflect their
gender development, parents were asked to report on their children’s gender-typed play behaviors,
gender-typed clothing preferences (e.g., insisting on dressing in masculine or feminine ways), and
their gender typicality. As discussed, children increasingly show gender-typed preferences, even gen-
der rigidity, as they develop an understanding of gender categories. Therefore, for the last hypothesis
I expected a positive relation to exist between the gender-typed nature of children’s Halloween cos-
tumes choices and these three aspects of gender development.

Methods

Participants
Participants included 110 (53 boys, 57 girls) children 3–63 months old (M = 2.94 years, SD = 1.32) and
one parent of each of the children. Information about the child’s age and gender was provided by the
parent as part of a confidential paper-and-pencil demographic survey. Participants were recruited from
two preschools in the suburbs of New York City. The median yearly family income of the sample was
approximately $91,000. The participants were primarily Caucasian (76.4%), and included Asian Amer-
ican (4.5%), Latino/a (4.5%), and African American (2.7%) children. 7.3% of the sample reported an
ethnicity other than these listed.

Procedures
Observational methodologies and parent-report surveys were employed to in this study. Obser-
vational methods were used to provide objective assessments of the gender-typed nature of the
children’s Halloween costumes. Parent reports about the Halloween costume choice process and about
 THE JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY 5

the children’s gender development were used to minimize concerns about the variations in children’s
verbal abilities given the participants’ young ages.

Observational methodology
Observational coding scheme. Halloween costumes were coded on a 5-point scale that paralleled the
rating system used in Blakemore and Centers’s (2005) hallmark study that categorized children’s toys
as gender typed. In Blakemore and Centers’s rating system, 292 participants’ ratings of how much they
perceived 126 different toys to be for boys through for girls were used to categorize the toys into five
categories: strongly masculine, moderately masculine, neutral, moderately feminine, and strongly fem-
inine toys. The similarities in rating toys and Halloween costumes can be seen in examples of the toys
categorized: G.I. Joe characters, World Wrestling Federation wrestlers, sports toys, and superhero cos-
tumes were coded as strongly masculine toys; zoo animals were categorized as neutral toys; and ballerina,
Barbie, and princess toys were categorized as strongly feminine toys.
In the present study, the observational coding scheme for Halloween costumes was created by the
principle investigator and a research team of four undergraduate or graduate psychology students by
rating how gender-typed each Halloween costume pictured in two different Halloween costume cata-
logs was on the strongly masculine through strongly feminine 5-point scale. For costumes to be coded
as strongly masculine or strongly feminine, they were to be overtly gender-typed or stereotypically con-
sidered to be for boys or for girls. For example, costumes that would be categorized as strongly mascu-
line included superhero costumes with fake muscles and weapon accessories. Costumes to be coded as
strongly feminine included princess costumes with ruffled dresses and jeweled accessories. Similar to the
categories seen for moderately masculine toys (Blakemore & Centers, 2005), police officer costumes and
dinosaurs were to be coded as moderately masculine and a veterinarian was to be coded as moderately
feminine. Gender-neutral costumes were described as costumes that did not evoke a particular gender
group association, or reflect a character or object that was typically male or female, such as a giraffe or a
banana costume. Should a costume be gender neutral but also have a gendered color scheme (i.e., pink
or blue) or a gendered clothing cue (e.g., wearing a hair bow or a necktie), the proper rating would be
moderately feminine or moderately masculine depending on the gender type of the detail. For example,
a giraffe with a hair bow would be rated as moderately feminine, and a banana wearing a necktie would
be rated as moderately masculine.
Finally, the coding scheme was designed to be based on the appearance of the costume, rather than
the category in which the costume might be placed. For example, a wide variety of superhero costumes
are available. Should these costumes be rated based on the category of superhero, the costume may have
been given a rating on the masculine side of the scale. However, many of these superhero costumes were
highly feminine in appearance, with pink miniskirts, mid-drift tops, jewelry, and high heels. Thus, the
proper code for these costumes would be very feminine.
Each team member’s ratings of the Halloween costumes pictured in the catalogs were compared and
agreement was high. Thus, these categorizations were used as guidelines to train a larger team of under-
graduate and graduate research assistants who would be coding children’s actual Halloween costumes.
To train the coding team, each coder was asked to review the costumes featured in the Halloween
costume catalogs and note how the original research team coded the costumes. Next, a selection of pro-
totypical costumes was presented to coders along with guidelines as to why each costume would receive
its rating. Once familiar with the coding scheme, research assistants were given a printed copy of an
online catalog of children’s Halloween costumes and asked to rate half of the costumes in the catalog.
Interrater reliability was then assessed, and the guidelines were again reviewed. Training continued with
the second half of the catalog until coders could demonstrate proficiency with the rating scale.
Observation procedures. Research assistants attended the Halloween parades held at each of the
preschools. At these events the children in the childcare center walk or are pushed in strollers around
the school grounds. Coders were instructed to rate each child as they saw them in the parade, and each
child was separately rated by two coders. Coders did not know the child’s preferred gender or name.
After the parade, teachers assisted in matching coding sheets with identification numbers for each child
6 L. M. DINELLA

so that observation data could be later matched with parent survey data. The roster or code number key
was stored separate from the data sheets. Interrater reliability of the costume ratings was high (α = .997).
For boys, a highly gender-typed observation score would be a 1, representing a costume that appeared
very masculine. For girls, a highly gender-typed observation score would be a 5, representing a costume
that appeared very feminine. However, some of the hypotheses were about how gender typed a child
was (so for boys how masculine their costume was and for girls how feminine their costume was). Thus,
a gender-typed variable was also created where boys’ scores were reverse coded, so that a high score
represented strongly masculine, and girls’ scores remained the same. In this gender-typed variable, high
scores represented the most gender-typed score possible for both boys and girls. It is noted when this
gender-typed variable is used as a dependent variable.

Parent-report surveys
Parents were asked to provide basic demographic information (e.g., child’s gender) and information
about their children’s Halloween costumes. Specifically, parents were asked to report on the level of auton-
omy children had in their costume choice (1 = I made the decision; 4 = my child made the decision).
They were also asked to rate on a 5-point scale much they agreed that their child’s costume was chosen
because it was: scary, cute, a possible career for the child, the child’s favorite character, fun to pretend to
be this, an inexpensive costume, seen in the store and chosen.
Gender-typed play behaviors. Parents were also asked to report on their children’s play behaviors.
First, parents were asked to indicate if their children possessed certain play items, and if they did how
often the item was used based on items from a larger survey about gender rigidity (Halim et al., 2013).
Sample items included dolls and cars, and possible responses were on a 5-point Likert-type scale with
responses ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (every day). They were also instructed to draw a line through any
question that they deemed not applicable to their child due to the child’s age. Two subscales were created
by averaging parent responses on four questions to create a masculine-typed activity subscale (α = .76),
and five questions to create a feminine-typed activity subscale (α = .82).
Gender-typed clothing preferences. Parents were also asked to complete a survey assessing chil-
dren’s interest in highly gender-typed preferences. Specifically, parents were given four questions from
the Child’s Gender Stereotyped Attributes subscale, which was part of a larger standardized gender rigid-
ity measure (Halim et al., 2013). These items asked parents to rate their children’s desire to wear clothing
consistent with gender stereotypes in both type of clothing and in color. Sample questions include “My
son loves to wear really masculine things like baseball caps, basketball shoes, and/or sports jerseys” or for
girls “My daughter loves to wear pink clothing and accessories.” Parents were asked to report on a 5-point
Likert-type scale with responses ranging from 1 (not at all true) and 5 (extremely true). and responses
were averaged to create one subscale. They were also instructed to draw a line through any question that
they deemed not applicable to their child due to the child’s age. The reliability of the subscale was high
(α = .69), and thus responses were averaged together to create a single score, where a high score indicated
children having highly gender-stereotyped preferences.
Gender identity. Parents were asked to report on their child’s gender typicality using the gender typ-
icality subscale based on Egan and Perry’s (2001) Gender Identity Scale. A sample question from the
six-question subscale includes “I feel that my daughter’s personality is different from most girls,” and
responses were rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale with responses ranging from 1 (not at all true) to 4
(very true). Questions were reverse coded so that a high score reflected high typicality. They were also
instructed to draw a line through any question that they deemed not applicable to their child due to the
child’s age. The reliability of the six questions was high (α = .72), and thus the questions were averaged
together to create a single gender typicality score.

Results
Hypothesis 1. I predicted that gender differences would exist in how gender-typed children’s Halloween
costumes are, in the most popular types of costumes chosen by the children (e.g., princesses, super-
heroes), and in the reasons for choosing the costume (See Table 1).
 THE JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY 7

Table . Means and standard deviations of relevant variables.

Girls Boys
Variable M SD M SD

. Career . . . .

. Pretend . . . .
∗∗ ∗∗
. Cute . . . .
∗∗ ∗∗
. Scary . . . .
. Inexpensive . . . .
. Favorite character . . . .
. Independence in choice . . . .
∗∗ ∗∗
. Masculinity to femininity of costume . . . .
. Gender-typed nature of costume . . . .
∗∗ p < . (two tailed).

I conducted independent sample t tests to determine whether significant gender differences existed
in how masculine or feminine the boys’ versus girls’ Halloween costumes were. As predicted, boys’
costumes were more masculine and girls’ costumes were more feminine, t(108) = −17.04, p = .001,
reffect = .85 (Mboys = 2.05, Mgirls = 4.51). Descriptive statistics indicated that gendered trends did exist
in the most popular types of Halloween costumes chosen by boys and girls. For girls, princess cos-
tumes were the most popular (28.1% of the girls wore princess costumes), whereas for boys superhero
costumes were the most popular (15.1%). For girls, a tie for second most popular costume existed
between a pumpkin costume and superhero costume (each at 7%). Further investigation showed that
the superhero costumes worn by girls were all female superheroes (e.g., Supergirl) and were all coded
as strongly feminine (including miniskirts, mid-drifts, or plastic high heels). For boys, the second most
popular costume was a monkey costume (9.4%) and the third most popular costume was a pirate (5.7%).
I also found gendered trends in the decision-making behind choosing Halloween costumes based on
parent reports of why the costumes were chosen (see Table 1). Independent sample t tests indicated that
girls’ costumes more than boys’ costumes were chosen because they were cute, t(106) = −3.36, p = .001,
reffect = .22 (Mboys = 4.22, Mgirls = 4.61). Boys’ costumes more than girls’ costumes were chosen because
they were scary, t(104) = 3.25, p = .003, reffect = .29 (Mboys = 1.72, Mgirls = 1.22). Further, parents of
daughters reported agreeing most strongly with the answer that the costume was cute (M = 4.57). For
sons, parents most strongly agreed with the answer that the costume was a fun thing to pretend to be
(M = 4.33).
Hypothesis 2. I expected that as children become older, they would increasingly wear Halloween cos-
tumes that were gender-typed.
I conducted correlational analyses to confirm a relation between age and the gender-typed nature
of children’s Halloween costumes. As expected, a significant positive relation existed between age and
the gender-typed nature of children’s Halloween costumes, r(110) = .47, p < .001. Further, results of a
univariate analysis of variance showed that younger children’s costumes were consistently less gender-
typed than the older children’s costumes, F(1, 4) = 7.74, p < .001. Post hoc comparisons showed that
the infants’ costumes (i.e., children who were up to 12 months in age) were significantly less gender
typed than the 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds’ costumes were, and the 1-year-olds’ costumes were significantly
less gender typed than the 3- and 4-year-olds’ costumes were. Finally, the 2-year-olds’ costumes were
significantly less gender typed than the 4-year-olds’ costumes were.
Hypothesis 3. I predicted that children’s ages would be positively related to their levels of autonomy
in choosing their own costumes. Additionally, I investigated whether there was a typical age when
children assumed this decision-making role.
I conducted descriptive and correlational analyses to better understand children’s roles in choosing
their Halloween costumes during early childhood. As expected, a positive relation existed between age
and independence in making costume choices r(107) = .62, p < .001. Cross-tabulation analyses were
conducted to see if a typical age existed for children to assume the decision-making role. Results indicate
8 L. M. DINELLA

that at 2 years old, 95% of the children’s parents made the decision for their child, whereas at 3 years old
only 23% of parents chose a Halloween costume on their child’s behalf.
Hypothesis 4. I posited that children whose parents chose their Halloween costumes for them would
have less gender-typed costumes than would the children who chose their own costumes.
An independent samples t test confirmed that children whose parents chose their Halloween costumes
for them had Halloween costumes that were less gender typed than did children who were involved
in the Halloween costume decision-making process, t(105) = −2.94, p = .004, reffect = .27 (Mparents =
3.96, Mchild = 4.42). I then conducted a univariate analysis of variance with the gender-typed rating
of Halloween costumes as the dependent variable to investigate if there were gender-typed trends in
this pattern. Results confirmed the expected significant main effect of autonomy in choosing one’s own
costume existed, F(1, 107) = 12.33, p = .001, such that children who chose their own costumes wore
costumes rated as more gender typed than did the children whose parents chose their costumes for
them. Results also confirmed that a significant main effect of gender existed, F(1, 107) = 14.30, p = .001,
such that girls’ costumes were more gender-typed than boys’ costumes were (Mgirls = 4.45, Mboys = 3.90).
There was no significant interaction effect of gender by autonomy, F(1, 107) = 0.99, p = .32.
Hypothesis 5. I proposed that how gender-typed children’s play behaviors were, how gender-typed chil-
dren’s clothing preferences were, and how gender typical parents reported their children were would
predict how gender-typed children’s Halloween costumes were.
I conducted hierarchical regression analyses to test whether children who were exhibiting gender-
typed play behaviors were more likely to wear gender-typed Halloween costumes. First, how autonomous
the child was in choosing their Halloween costume was controlled for in step 1. Next, masculine-typed
play behaviors and feminine-typed play behaviors were entered as predictor variables. The dependent
variable for this regression was the masculine or feminine nature of the Halloween costume (1 = strongly
masculine, 5 = strongly feminine). Results support the study hypotheses, such that the more children
engaged in masculine-typed play activities the less feminine their Halloween costume was, and the more
children engaged in feminine-typed play activities the more feminine their Halloween costume was (see
Table 2). Given the wide age range of children in the study, it is possible that children’s gendered play
behaviors do not emerge until later in children’s gender development. Gender development research has
mixed findings about the level of gender knowledge necessary to compel gendered behaviors (Ruble
et al., 2007). However, the results remained the same when the statistical analyses were replicated only
including data about children 37 months old or older, the age in which children have empirically been
shown to have mastered the identity phase of gender constancy (i.e., correctly answer questions such as
“Are you a boy or a girl?”).
Hierarchical regression analyses were also conducted to test whether children’s level of gender-
typed clothing preferences predicted the gender-typed nature of their Halloween costume. First, how
autonomous the child was in choosing his or her Halloween costume was controlled for in step 1. Next,
children’s gender-typed clothing preference was entered as an independent variable. The dependent
Table . Hierarchical regression analyses: Gender-typed play behaviors predicting masculine/feminine gender-type of Halloween
costumes.

Masculine or feminine gender type of costume

Predictor B SE B β

Step 
Autonomy in costume choice − ./−. ./. − ./−.
Step 
Autonomy in costume choice ./. ./. ./.
Masculine-typed play − ./−. ./. − ./−.
Feminine-typed play ./. ./. ./.

Note: First numbers in table correspond to analyses run with all children and second numbers correspond to analyses run with children
>  months old. Feminine = high; masculine = low. For all children: R = ., R = ., F = ., p < .. For only children > 
months old, R = ., R = ., F = ., p < ..
 THE JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY 9

Table . Hierarchical regression analysis: Gender-typed clothing preferences predicting gender-typed appearance of
Halloween costumes.

Sex typing of costume

Predictor B SE B β

Step 
Autonomy in costume choice ./−. ./. ./−.
Step 
Autonomy in costume choice ./−. ./. ./−.
Gender-typed clothing ./. ./. ./.
Preferences

Note: First numbers in table correspond to analyses run with all children and second numbers correspond to analyses
run with children >  months old. For all children included in analyses, R = ., R = ., F = ., p = .. For
children >  months old included, R = ., R = ., F = ., p = ..

variable was the gender-typed appearance of the child’s Halloween costume. Results support the study
hypothesis that children’s gender-typed clothing preferences were positively related to how gender-typed
their Halloween costume was in appearance (See Table 3). As conducted previously, the hierarchal regres-
sion analysis was replicated, only including data about children 37 months old or older. The relation
between children’s gender-typed clothing preferences and the gender-typed appearance of the child’s
Halloween costume was not significant for this truncated age range of children.
Contrary to expectations, the dimension of children’s gender identity used in the study, gender typi-
cality was not found to be predictive of the gender-typed nature of children’s Halloween costume choice.
A hierarchical regression was conducted with age as a control variable, gender typicality as an indepen-
dent variable, and a dependent variable of the gender-typed appearance of Halloween costumes. Results
indicated that gender typicality was not a predictor of the masculinity or femininity of Halloween cos-
tumes, regardless of whether all of the children or only the children who chose their own costumes were
included in the analyses: β = −.04, t(106) = −0.4, p = .69; β = −.08, t(65) = −0.72, p = .48.

Discussion
The growing popularity of Halloween (Grannis, 2014) parallels increased concern over the gender
stereotyped nature of children’s toys (Sweet, 2013), and of Halloween costumes specifically (Dinella,
2015; Miller, 2015; Allen, 2014; Tabuchi, 2015; Valle, 2015). The stereotyped nature of costumes available
for purchase has been empirically confirmed (Murnen et al., 2016). However, little research has been
conducted on children’s Halloween costume choice and whether costume choices are related to gender
development. The present study expands on the work of Ogletree, Denton, and Williams (1993), who
noted older children (first- and second-grade students) wore less gender stereotyped Halloween cos-
tumes than did preschool and kindergarten children, a trend that is congruent with gender development
processes. In the present study I focused on children’s Halloween costumes during infancy through early
childhood, with the hypothesis that the gender-typed appearance of children’s costume choices would
correspond with cognitive gender development processes, including that children aim for congruence
between their gender schemas and their preferences as they progress through the gender development
process (Martin & Dinella, 2011). Thus, children’s Halloween costumes would function as an artifact of
gender development.
As expected, gender-stereotyped trends were found in boys’ and girls’ Halloween costumes. Girls’ cos-
tumes were more feminine and boys’ costumes were more masculine, and the magnitude of this gender
difference was large. Further, gendered trends existed in the reported reasons why children’s costumes
were chosen and in the most popular types of costumes worn. Notably, princess costumes were clearly
the most popular Halloween costume choice for girls, confirming the occurrence of the princess phe-
nomena discussed by authors such as Orenstein (2011). In contrast, superhero costumes were the most
popular costume worn by boys.
10 L. M. DINELLA

Children use gender as a tool in categorization and decision making, especially as they gain mastery
of gender concepts (Halim et al., 2013). Thus, it is expected that the older children are, the more they
would be using gender as a basis for their decision making about their Halloween costumes during early
childhood. The age range of the participants in the study spanned the formative years of gender develop-
ment, allowing for investigation into the relation between age and the gender-typed nature of children’s
Halloween costumes. Indeed, children’s ages were positively correlated with the gender-type of children’s
Halloween costumes, and children in younger age groups were found to have significantly less gender-
typed costumes than did children in older age groups. The correlational nature of the study does not
confirm whether the gender-typing of each child’s Halloween costumes increased over the years of their
lives as longitudinal data would, however the study’s cross-sectional analysis concurs with the hypothe-
sis that as children mature through early childhood, they would choose more gender-typed Halloween
costumes.
Given the young age of the children in the study sample, it is important to establish whether the chil-
dren’s Halloween costumes were actually decided on by the child or by parents on the children’s behalf.
The use of parent reports in addition to the observational methodology allowed for the children’s role
in the decision-making process to be established. Results supported the expectation that parents would
use gender as a categorization criterion less than the children currently mastering the understanding of
gender concepts (Serbin & Sprafkin, 1986), in that children whose parents chose their costume for them
wore less gender-typed costumes than children who reportedly played a role in choosing their own cos-
tume. Although the parent report of this concept aids our understanding of children’s decisions, this
assessment of child’s autonomy of choice does not consider the role of environmental and socialization
agents in influencing children’s Halloween costume decisions, which would be important to understand
in the future.
Children exhibiting gender-typed play behaviors and who preferred gender stereotyped clothing were
also more likely to have worn gender-typed Halloween costumes. Both of these findings correspond
to the gender development processes salient to this period of childhood. Halim et al. (2013) noted
that children’s construction process of what gender categories mean reaches a fever pitch during the
preschool and kindergarten years. It seems as though the gender-typing of Halloween costumes may
be an artifact of this developmental stage. However, when the youngest children in the study were not
included in the analyses, the relation between children’s preference for gender stereotyped clothing and
the gender-typed nature of their Halloween costumes was not found to be significant. More research
with a larger sample size is needed to determine if this is due to a decrease in power to detect the relation,
or if the relation does not exist.
Although an increase in children’s gender-typed preferences has been noted during the later preschool
years, the increased use of gender as a categorization tool increases during early childhood development
does not alleviate the concern over the stereotyped nature of the Halloween costumes available to chil-
dren (Murnen et al., 2016), nor the prevalence of gender stereotyped costume choices made by children.
The gender-typing of toys, especially the marketing of toys as for girls or for boys and the gender labeling
toys via color (Weisgram, Fulcher, & Dinella, 2014), has been found to influence children’s perceptions
of toys’ attractiveness. For example, experimentally manipulating the color of toys (e.g., pink toys
changed to blue and blue toys painted pink) changed children’s interest in toys, with girls liking boys’
toys as much as girls’ toys if the boys’ toys were painted pink. Given that different types of toys teach
different types of skills and reinforce different types of behaviors, gender-typed play potentially sets
boys and girls on unnecessarily divergent paths. The same may be true for dressing up for Halloween,
given the similarities between the holiday custom and pretend play activities. Future research on the
socialization processes related to children’s Halloween costume choices is needed. It is plausible that
the positive or negative reinforcement children receive during the decision-making process and while
dressed in the costume may be important to children’s socialization and their gender schema formation
(Martin & Dinella, 2002).
It was expected that a correlation between gender identity and children’s gender-typed Halloween
costume choice would further connect the children’s gender stereotyped Halloween costumes to gender
development processes. However, the gender identity dimension, gender typicality, was not related to the
 THE JOURNAL OF GENETIC PSYCHOLOGY 11

gender-typed appearance of children’s Halloween costumes. In the present study, Egan and Perry’s (2001)
student-report measure was adapted and used as a parent-report measure. This decision was made so
that the same assessment of gender typicality could be used for all of the children, regardless of their
verbal abilities. It is possible that gender identity cannot be reported on by an outside source, given that
gender identity is a cognitive dimension of gender, and may be more about how a child thinks about being
typical rather than whether they appear to be typical from an outside perspective. It is also possible that
this particular dimension of gender identity is still being formed during the early ages measured within
this study.
The use of observational methods to rate the actual appearance of the children’s costumes is a strength
of the study. Observations helped reduce subjectivity in the ratings that may have occurred should par-
ents or teacher been asked to assess how gender-typed the costumes were. Further, this method allowed
for details about how the costume was worn (e.g., bows in hair, makeup added, shortness of skirts) that
helped determine the gender-typed nature of the costume. Also, actually viewing the costumes rather
than asking for reports of the type or category of costume provided information. For example, superhero
costumes were a fairly popular costume choice for girls. However, observational methods provided the
insight that in contrast to the fake muscle–type superhero costumes donned by boys, the girls’ superhero
costumes included strongly feminine details such as miniskirts and plastic high heels. More empirical
research would be helpful to confirm widespread agreement on ratings of how gender-typed Halloween
costumes are, similar to that done by Blakemore and Centers (2005) on children’s toys. Further, investi-
gating Halloween costumes in terms of how they reflect masculine traits, and separately how they reflect
feminine traits, might aid researchers in understanding an additional aspect of Halloween costumes that
may be contributing to children’s costume choices.

Implications and future directions

The present study provides evidence of the relation between children’s gender development and their
Halloween costume decision-making processes. Results support cognitive gender theories, indicat-
ing that children used gender as a factor in their decision-making process when choosing their own
Halloween costumes.
The mass marketing of children’s costumes is a salient issue, especially given that 88.2% of the
participants in this sample purchased their costume rather than hand-making or borrowing a cos-
tume. The empirically confirmed gender-typed nature of Halloween costumes available for purchase
(Murnen et al., 2016) raises the question of the impact that marketing and availability of these types
of costumes has on children. In particular, concern has been raised about the potential negative impli-
cations of mass marketing princesses to girls (Coyne, Rasmussen, Linder, Nelson, & Birkbeck, 2016;
Orenstein, 2016), and of gender-typed play in general. In the present study it was confirmed that not
only were girls choosing feminine costumes and boys choosing masculine costumes, princess costumes,
and superhero costumes were the most popular costumes worn. Research is needed that is designed
to disentangle the role of gender development (i.e., the increase in using gender as a categorization
tool during early childhood) versus marketing that promotes princesses and superheroes as gender-
typed toys as explanations for the large differences in the masculinity and femininity of boys’ and girls’
costumes.
Future researchers could also investigate whether the rates of gender-typed costumes differ by cos-
tume size, and whether the availability or marketing of gender-typed costumes differs by targeted age of
the child. Still, even if these trends were found to exist, research would be needed to better understand the
degree to which the offerings and availability of commercially sold costumes are driving the purchasing
of gender-typed costumes, versus the degree to which children’s desire to wear gender-typed costumes
drive what the retail markets make available for purchase.
Future research directly assessing children’s mastery of gender constructs (e.g., their understanding
of gender categories, gender stability, and gender constancy) and how these skills relate to children’s
Halloween costume choices would add depth to the field’s understanding of gender cognitions and the
12 L. M. DINELLA

implications of gender cognitions. One study has found a link between children’s understanding of gen-
der stability and their desire to wear gender-typed clothing (Halim et al., 2013), and this type of research
could be expanded on to better understand the gender development stages, as well as whether Halloween
costumes are indicators of children’s growth and development. Further, experimental research is neces-
sary for causality and direction of effects to be confirmed.
It would also be beneficial to the field to identify the age in which gender identity dimensions such as
gender typicality emerge and become a stable. It would be informative to know whether gender identity
can accurately be assessed via an other report throughout early childhood. In this study, parent report
was relied on to remove the concerns about children’s verbal abilities in the youngest ages; however, the
disadvantage of this choice is the loss of introspective data.

Conclusion
The present study results support that children’s Halloween costume choice corresponds with children’s
gender development processes, with older children and children who were more responsible for choos-
ing their own Halloween costumes found to wear costumes more gender-typed in appearance than did
younger children and children whose parents chose their costumes for them. Children increasingly use
gender as a categorization tool during early childhood, and this study confirms the connection between
this developmental process and children’s Halloween costume choices. This finding, coupled with the
increase in marketing of toys and children’s products as for boys or for girls (Sweet, 2013), raises con-
cerns about the potentially divergent paths boys and girls are being set out on early in childhood, and
the gendered messages children are receiving via the Halloween costume choice process (Murnen et al.,
2016).

Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank all of the research assistants at the Gender Development Laboratory at Monmouth Univer-
sity. Morgan Lalevee and Jessica Clauberg assisted in preparing the manuscript, and Krista St. Louis, Jenna DeLozier, Nicole
Altillio, and Nicole Atrashewski helped with data preparation. The author is grateful to the preschool staff members, the
parents, and of course the children who participated in the study. The author thanks Dr. Erica Weisgram for her thoughtful
edits.

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