Finally, we discuss how dynamic systems theory may be applied in gender development and describe its potential for understanding patterns over different time frames.Ī major issue that has driven research is whether children's basic understanding of gender identity motivates and organizes the development of gender-typed behaviors, an idea proposed by “self-socialization” theories of gender development. Longitudinal studies are reviewed to examine whether individual differences are stable over time in two areas of gender typing: sex segregation and activities and interests. Second, we examine continuities within individuals over time as an important theoretical complement to the first focus on mean-level, normative patterns over time. First, to highlight developmentalists' interest in average or normative changes across age, we review the timeline of gender development for the emergence of gender understanding and stereotyping and how discrimination and prejudice develop in childhood. In selecting issues to review, we attempted to find a set of issues that would provide insights into processes underlying gender development while also being representative of contemporary issues and future directions in the field. Our goal in this article is not to provide an extensive review of changes in gender over childhood, but instead to focus on the perspective of developmental patterning. Gender developmental scientists are beginning to conceptualize temporal change and measurement of relevant variables over time in more nuanced ways and with new methods and analytic strategies. Using a broad lens on age-related changes provides important information describing how development occurs, but shorter time frames are also useful for identifying processes that may underlie developmental patterns. Description of these changes is vitally important as it informs theoretical approaches to gender development. Gender developmental scientists are concerned with age-related changes in gender typing, and more broadly, with many issues about the emergence and patterning of gendered behaviors and thinking. Understanding the changes that correspond with the passage of time is a hallmark of developmental studies, including the study of gender development. Some major features and examples show how dynamic approaches have been and could be applied in studying gender development. Dynamic systems theory is a metatheoretical framework for studying stability and change, which developed from the study of complex and nonlinear systems in physics and mathematics. Finally, a new approach advances understanding of developmental patterns, based on dynamic systems theory. We review stability in two domains-sex segregation and activities/interests. Second, developmental researchers study the stability of individual differences over time, which elucidates developmental processes. First, because developmental research involves understanding normative patterns of change with age, several theoretically important topics illustrate gender development: how children come to recognize gender distinctions and understand stereotypes, and the emergence of prejudice and sexism. This review considers multiple views on gender patterning, illustrated with contemporary research. A comprehensive theory of gender development must describe and explain long-term developmental patterning and changes and how gender is experienced in the short term.