Children’s implicit gender–toy association development varies across cultures.

Abstract

Gender-stereotyped beliefs develop early in childhood and are thought to increase with age based on prior research that was primarily carried out in Western cultures. Little research, however, has examined cross-cultural (in)consistencies in the developmental trajectory of gender-stereotyped beliefs. The present study examined implicit gender–toy stereotypes among 4- to 9-year-olds (N = 1,013; 49.70% girls) in Canada, China, and Thailand. Children from all three cultures evidenced implicit gender–toy stereotypes over this developmental period, but cultural differences in the developmental pattern and strength of these stereotypes were apparent. Gender–toy stereotypes were relatively strong and stable across age groups among Thai children and relatively weak and stable across age groups among Chinese children. Canadian 4- to 5-year-old children displayed weaker stereotypes, whereas 6- to 9-year-olds displayed stronger stereotypes. These findings highlight the contribution of culture to children’s gender stereotype development. Although gender–toy stereotypes were found among 4- to 9-year-olds in all three cultures examined here, the strength of these stereotypes varies by culture. Furthermore, the previously described increase in gender stereotyping over this developmental period appears to not apply across cultures, thus challenging the conventional view on development in this domain based on prior, mainly Western, research.

“He did girls’ things!” Hong Kong and Canadian children’s reasoning about moral judgments of peers’ gendered behaviors.

“…Prior studies have shown the consistency of gender stereotypes across Chinese and Western cultures in general (Wong & VanderLaan, 2020; Yu et al, 2010), such as the concepts of masculinity and femininity (Cheung, 1996), toy play (Qian et al, 2023; Todd et al, 2018), and color preferences (Yeung & Wong, 2018). Despite the evidence supporting the similarity in gender socialization in Chinese and Western cultures, we acknowledge that there are limitations in making cross-cultural comparisons between Hong Kong and Canadian children in our study.…”

Making Sense of Sex in Neuroscience

“…Sharing the authors’ White, cisgender, European background, we agree that the cultural and social/societal setting needs to be addressed when sex and gender are being discussed. For example, the emergence of gender stereotypes during childhood varies markedly depending on cultural background ( 9 ), and across different cultures, sex and gender may be expected to play differently accentuated or even diverging roles in mental well-being and disorders ( 10 ). The inclusion of individuals from diverse cultural contexts and invested in different gender cultures and policies is therefore of great relevance for our research, whereas a purely Western perspective will significantly limit what we can achieve.…”