Social representations of gender and young children's play: A replication

Abstract

Forty target children aged 3 to 4 years were observed playing with gender stereotyped toys with both a boy and a girl partner in a replication and extension of an earlier study of toy choice in action and pretend play (Lloyd & Smith, 1985). The findings which were replicated were: (1) in action play girls used girls' toys more and boys used boys' toys more, (2) in pretend play girls used girls' toys more but no differentiation occurred in the use of boys' toys. The absence of pair‐type effects which were found in the earlier study raises questions about socio‐psychological aspects of the replication design.