MACCOBY, ELEANOR E., and JACKLIN, CAROL NAGY. Stress, Activity, and Proximity Seeking: Sex Diferences in the Year-Old Child. CmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1973, 44, 34-42. 2 experiments are reported with children age 13 and 14 months in which (a) activity level and (b) proximity to the mother were scored. In 1 experiment, the distance of the child from the mother at the time of onset of a fear stimulus was varied. In the second experiment, variations in the intensity of the fear stimulus were introduced. The studies focused on sex differences and were designed to test the hypothesis that girls were more likely to be immobilized by a fear stimulus than boys. Results showed the reverse to be the case. Latencies to move following the onset of the fear* stimulus were short when the stimulus was very intense and were longer when it was of moderate intensity. Hence, the longer latencies for boys suggest lesser arousal or lesser readiness to flee. Boys' behavior was more responsive to variations in the level of stress than that of girls. There was no sex difference in proximity to mother.
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Maccoby et al. (1973) studied this question.