Parents\u2019 Judgments about the Desirability of Toys for Their Children: Associations with Gender Role Attitudes, Gender-typing of Toys, and Demographics

Marlene Kollmayer,Marie-Therese Schultes,Tanja Hodosi,Christiane Spiel,Barbara Schober

doi:10.1007/s11199-017-0882-4

Marlene Kollmayer, Marie-Therese Schultes + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-017-0882-4

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Abstract

Parental toy selection and responses to toy play are important factors in children’s gender socialization. Reinforcing play with same-gender-typed toys guides children’s activities and limits their action repertoires in accordance with gender stereotypes. A survey of 324 Austrian parents of three- to six-year-old children was conducted to investigate parents’ judgments about the desirability of different types of toys for their children and how these judgements relate to parents’ gender-typing of toys, gender role attitudes, and demographics (age, education, gender). Results show that parents rated same-gender-typed and gender-neutral toys as more desirable for their children than cross-gender-typed toys. The traditionalism of parents’ gender role attitudes was not associated with their desirability judgments of same-gender-typed toys, but was negatively related to their desirability judgments of cross-gender-typed toys. This indicates that egalitarian parents permit a greater range of interests and behaviors in their children than traditional parents do. Younger parents, parents with lower educational levels, and fathers reported more traditional gender role attitudes than did older parents, parents with higher educational levels, and mothers. However, no differences based on age, educational level or gender were found in parents’ judgments of toy desirability. The present study demonstrates that parents’ judgments about the desirability of toys for their children do not accurately reflect their gender role attitudes. This finding highlights the importance of simultaneously investigating different aspects of parents’ gender-related attitudes in order to gain a better understanding of parental transmission of gender stereotypes.

Highlights

Parental toy selection and responses to toy play are important factors in children’s gender socialization
Feminine toys relate to nurturance, care, attractiveness, and beauty, whereas stereotypically masculine toys relate to technology, competition, aggression, construction, and action (Blakemore and Centers 2005; Campenni 1999)
We first conducted preliminary analyses to find out whether it would be legitimate to use the newly formed scales for parents’ desirability judgments about same- and cross-gender-typed toys and their overall gender-typing of toys in further analyses

Summary

Introduction

Parental toy selection and responses to toy play are important factors in children’s gender socialization. Gender-typed toy play leads to the promotion of different skills in boys and girls, with girls practicing communal roles and boys practicing agentic roles This guides children’s activities in accordance with gender stereotypes and restricts their individual development potential (Cherney et al 2003; Francis 2010; Jirout and Newcombe 2015; Li and Wong 2016). It is well known that children tend to prefer toys that are stereotypically identified with their own gender (Cherney and London 2006; Dinella et al 2017; Fisher-Thompson 1993; Francis 2010; Ruble et al 2006) This observed preference for same-gender-typed toys in children cannot be conceived in isolation from the role of parents in children’s gender socialization. The existing studies that examine parental toy choices are relatively dated which highlights the need for contemporary research on the topic

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