Why did Susan and Michael interview children aged between 9 and 11?

The piano and violin are girls’ instruments. Drums and trumpets are for boys. According to psychologists Susan Onco and Michael Balton, children have very clear ideas about which musical instruments they should play. They find that despite the best efforts of teachers, these ideas have changed very little over the past decade. They interviewed 153 children aged between 9 and 11 from schools in Northwest England. They asked them to identify 4 musical instruments and then to say which they would like to play the most and which they would like the least to play. They also asked the children for their views on whether boys or girls should not play any of the 4 instruments. The piano and the violin were both ranked more favorably by girls than by boys, while boys prefer the drums and trumpets. There was broad agreement between boys and girls on which instruments each sex should play and the reasons vary. And while almost half of all boys said they avoid certain instruments because they were too difficult to play, only 15% of girls gave that as a reason. Earlier studies indicated that very young school children aged between 5 and 7 showed no bias in choosing musical instruments, but their tastes became more clear between the ages of 8 and 10. One survey of 78 teachers suggested that after that age, both boys and girls began to restrict themselves to the so-called male or female instruments.