Gender Association of Musical Instruments and Preferences of Fourth-Grade Students for Selected Instruments

The purpose of this study was fourfold: (a) to measure possible changes in gender association of musical instruments from earlier research, (b) to estimate current preferences of fourth-grade students for selected instruments, (c) to gain an understanding of reasons expressed by students for preferring certain instruments and not others, and (d) to compare students' perceptions of their peers' preferences to the actual choices their peers made. Findings indicate the magnitude of gender associations has lessened; however, such associations are still noticeably present. Instrument positions on the masculine-feminine continuum remain relatively stable. The majority of the fourth-grade subjects preferred drums, saxophone, or flute, followed in descending order by clarinet, trumpet, violin, trombone, and cello. “Quality of sound” was a primary reason cited for wanting to play an instrument; “too difficult to play” was a primary reason for not wanting to play an instrument. Children's perceptions of their peers' preferences bore a moderate relationship to what their peers actually chose, with girls more accurate in predicting preferences of boys than vice versa.