Parents’ Influence on Infants’ Gender-Typed Toy Preferences

Abstract

Gender socialization influences children at early ages, shaping their developing identities. The toys provided by parents deliver some of the earliest gender-based messages by encouraging children to engage in activities associated with, for example, dolls and trucks. In the current study, we measured the influence of parental socialization by assessing 5-and 12 ½-month-old infants' exposure to dolls and trucks and by experimentally manipulating parents' encouragement to play with these toys. We found that infants displayed gender-typical toy preferences at 12 ½, but not 5 months, a pattern characteristic of previous studies. However, brief encouragement by a parent to play with toys from each category was ineffective in altering infants' preferences. Rather, the types of toys present in the home predicted preferences, suggesting that at-home exposure to toys may be influential in the development of toy preferences. These findings reveal that socialization processes may indeed play a role in the formation of early gender-typical toy preferences and highlight the importance of equal toy exposure during infancy to ensure optimal development.

Assessment of the Relationship between Toy Preferences of Preschool Children and Their Play Behaviors and Social Emotional States

“…Bu sonuca, okul öncesi dönemde çocuklarla en çok vakit geçiren aile ve öğretmenlerin değerlendirmeleri sonucu ulaşılmıştır. Çalışmamızla paralel olarak, yapılan bir çalışmada çocukların oyuncak tercihlerinin sosyal uyum davranışlarını olumlu etkilediği belirtilmiştir (20) . Türkiye'de 1986-2013 yılları arasında okul öncesinde oyun ile ilgili yapılan lisansüstü tezlerin incelenmesi amacıyla yapılan çalışmada da oyun davranışının sosyal duygusal gelişimi sağlamada ve kişilerarası iletişim üzerinde etkili olduğu bildirilmiştir.…”

Factors affecting infant toy preferences: Age, gender, experience, motor development, and parental attitude

“…Moving to slightly older infants, Lutchmaya and Baron-Cohen (2002) found that at 12 months, male infants paid more attention to moving cars, whereas female infants paid more attention to moving faces. A recent study by Boe and Woods (2018) also found male infants aged 12 months showed a preference for trucks over dolls in a grasping task, whereas 12-month-old female infants showed no such preference. Similarly, an observational study during a laboratory play session reported that female but not male infants aged 10-18 months interact longer with dolls than other toys such as trucks (Roopnarine, 1986).…”

“…With respect to the emergence of infant gender-specific toy preference, previous studies found no gender-specific or general toy preferences when comparing toys with faced stimuli among 5-montholds (Boe & Woods, 2018;Escudero et al, 2013) and even 12-month-olds (Jadva et al, 2010;Servin et al, 1999). This indicates experience may be required for infants to develop robust gender-specific toy preference in the second year after birth.…”

“…Since we ran our own studies, there have been several, which are particularly relevant to this question. Boe and Woods (2018) showed that across age and gender, infants' preference for trucks was predicted by the duration of home play with trucks, which was further predicted by the number of trucks in the home. This evidence suggests that parental selection of types of toys (e.g., dolls vs. trucks), or early gender socialization, can alter infants' development of social identities in the first year after birth.…”

“…In addition, a considerable amount of literature illustrates that face-like stimuli seem to be preferred over other stimuli for both male and female infants from the prenatal stage (Reid et al, 2017) to infancy (Farroni et al, 2005;Johnson, Dziurawiec, Ellis, & Morton, 1991;Leo & Simion, 2009;Mondloch et al, 1999;Pascalis, de Haan, & Nelson, 2002;Quinn, Kelly, Lee, Pascalis, & Slater, 2008). Using a preferential looking paradigm with paired stimuli presented simultaneously, a general looking preference for dolls or doll faces over cars or trucks for both male and female infants was observed at 5 months (Boe & Woods, 2018;Escudero, Robbins, & Johnson, 2013) and at 12 months (Jadva, Hines, & Golombok, 2010). Crucially, these observations challenge claims on gender-specific toy preferences.…”