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

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.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s11199-017-0882-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The Rise of the Androgynous Princess: Examining Representations of Gender in Prince and Princess Characters of Disney Movies Released 2009–2016

“…Previous work has argued that it is important and valuable to show both women and men as capable of expressing both masculine and feminine characteristics (Bem 1975), and the positive implications for children's gender identity development, and associated psychosocial outcomes, are clear (Martin et al 2016). However, the higher proportion of feminine behavior by prince characters is certainly no reflection of any obvious role change for men and young boys in society, or greater acceptance of men's feminine interests, as numerous studies suggest they are still consistently and firmly guided away from such pursuits (e.g., playing with feminine toys, see Kollmayer et al 2018). The reasons behind more feminine behavior in princes are therefore unclear.…”

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

“…There may be differences between male and female caretakers on their attitudes to toys and gender. We leave these potential factors for future research, but encourage greater diversity in children's toy play to promote a reduction in gender stereotypes (Dinella & Weisgram, 2018;Joel et al, 2015;Kollmayer et al, 2018;Spinner, Cameron, & Calogero, 2018).…”

“…An alternative interpretation would be that parents may be selecting toys according to their perceptions of the infants' pre-existing preferences. Parents rate gender-congruent and gender-neutral toys as more desirable than gender-incongruent toys for their children aged 3-6 years (Kollmayer, Schultes, Schober, Hodosi, & Spiel, 2018). A recent online survey was conducted by Weisgram and Bruun (2018) in which 238 prospective and 96 current parents' preferences on gender-specific toy purchases were measured.…”

Perceptions of gender roles: A case study

“…The girls' toys were heavily based on traditional 'gender-roles' of the female as a care-giver concerned by appearances and portrayed as a passive character; whereas the boys' toys were based on construction and perceived the male as an 'active' character who gains merit through strength and bravery (Dinella, Weisgram, & Fulcher, 2017;Francis, 2010). Toys were found to give gender suitability cues via their colour, logos and functions which indicate whether they are more communal based, for girls; or agentic based, for boys (Kollmayer, Schultes, Schober, Hodosi, & Spiel, 2018;Wood, Desmarais, & Gugula, 2002). The differences in how the toys were aimed to accommodate for either gender highlight explicitly to the children different messages of how each child should behave and what attitudes were associated for either gender.…”

“…Research found discrepancies in the findings of the parents' perceptions of gender and their actual attitudes and behaviour. For example, various literature found a common occurrence that parents tended to be more liberal and accepting in regard to the girls playing with toys aimed towards either gender than to towards the boys playing with toys aimed at either gender (Freeman 2007;Kollmayer et al, 2018;Our Watch, 2018;Wood, Desmarais & Gugula, 2002). Furthermore, Wood, Desmarais and Gugula (2002) highlight that parents often participate in gender stereotyped play with their children; however, parents are more gender flexible when they engage in play with girls.…”