The social representation of gender and young children's play

Lloyd, Barbara; Smith, Caroline

doi:10.1111/j.2044-835x.1985.tb00956.x

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Assertive and prosocial bids more social behaviour in mixed pairs. Although no other evidence on partner preference is available, we speculate that boys find 3-3Y2-year-old girls more interesting companions because at this age girls' verbal behaviour and in particular their symbolic play is more advanced than that of boys (Lloyd & Smith, 1985).…”

Section: Interactive Sequencesmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…Boys in the oldest age group displayed more assertion and less withdrawal behaviour than girls. In another report on this research (Lloyd & Smith, 1985), we have shown that girls are precocious not only in their linguistic development but also in their sensitivity to rules of gender-appropriate behaviour; in particular, they engage in more pretend play with feminine toys and less with masculine toys in the presence of a boy. Just as the verbal precocity of girls may enable them to construct episodes of pretend play, it may result in a verbal facility observable in the codes 'vocal command' and 'vocal prohibition'.…”

Section: Interactive Sequencesmentioning

confidence: 93%

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The effects of age and gender on social behaviour in very young children

Lloyd¹,

Smith²

1986

British J Social Psychol

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Children aged 19-42 months were video-recorded while playing in an experimental room equipped with gender-stereotyped toys. Children played first with their mothers and then with a familiar same-or opposite-gender partner. Thirteen categories of social behaviour were coded from the videotape record using a computer-assisted coding system. Twelve categories were combined in an aggregate measure-total social behaviour which increased with age and was more common in same-gender pairs, except among boys in the oldest age group. Subcategory analyses revealed different patterns. Prosocial behaviour was more common in mixed pairs and the frequencies of assertion and withdrawal behaviour provided mirror images. Girls in the first three age groups and boys in the oldest group displayed more ussertion but boys in the first three age groups and girls in the oldest group showed more withdrawal. At all ages boys were more successful in their assertive bids.The preference of young children for same-gender playmates has led to a number of studies which have sought to describe the development of gender-related patterns in various aspects of social interaction. Jacklin & Maccoby (1978) demonstrated that 33-month-olds directed more social behaviour, both positive and negative, to partners of the same gender. However, they found difficulty in explaining how these children identified their partner's gender since the children were strangers and were given no obvious clues such as gender-marked clothes or names.Studying children who attended the same play group Langlois el a / . (1973) found that three-year-old girls and all five-year-olds displayed the pattern described by Jacklin & Maccoby but that three-year-old boys, in contrast, engaged in more social behaviour in mixed pairs than in same-gender pairs. Phinney & Rotheram (1982) also observed children who normally played together and noted that the frequency of social overtures varied both with the gender of the instigator and the target child.The impact of partner's gender on behaviour has been demonstrated at a micro level as well. Wasserman & Stern (1978) have shown that three-and five-year-olds approach more closely, and orient their bodies more frontally, to a peer of the same gender. These studies raise a number of interesting questions relating both to the ages at which gender differences in social behaviour are first observed and to the precise nature of the underlying social processes.In a cross-sectional study we examined the behaviour of children from 19 to 42 months of age, seeking to show the effects of partner's gender on social behaviour at different ages. In order to study established patterns of social behaviour at an early age we recruited children who knew each other and were already accustomed to playing together. & Lucas, 1975;Hartup, 1978). Our design allowed us to investigate the impact of age on total amounts of social behaviour which we expected would increase over the age span studied (19-42 months). We also varied pair composition and observed boy-boy, g...

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Section: Interactive Sequencesmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Interactive Sequencesmentioning

confidence: 93%

The effects of age and gender on social behaviour in very young children

Lloyd¹,

Smith²

1986

British J Social Psychol

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“…The procedures followed those described in Lloyd & Smith (1985). Children were observed in a laboratory room furnished with the same range of toys of known gender stereotypical value.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…

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.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The hypothesis that there is a developmental continuity in young children's choice of toys from action play to pretend play was examined in an earlier study (Lloyd & Smith, 1985). It was proposed that a continuity of gender-appropriate toy choice across the transition from sensorimotor action play to symbolic pretend play reflected the influence of social representations of gender in the marking of toys as appropriate play objects for girls and for boys.…”

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confidence: 99%

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

Lloyd¹,

Duveen²,

Smith³

1988

British J of Dev Psycho

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How Large Are Gender Differences in Toy Preferences? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Toy Preference Research

2020

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It is generally recognized that there are gender-related differences in children's toy preferences. However, the magnitude of these differences has not been firmly established. Furthermore, not all studies of gender-related toy preferences find significant gender differences. These inconsistent findings could result from using different toys or methods to measure toy preferences or from studying children of different ages. Our systematic review and meta-analysis combined 113 effect sizes from 75 studies to estimate the magnitude of gender-related differences in toy preferences. We also assessed the impact of using different toys or methods to assess these differences, as well as the effect of age on gender-related toy preferences. Boys preferred boy-related toys more than girls did, and girls preferred girl-related toys more than boys did. These differences were large (d ≥ 1.60). Girls also preferred toys that researchers classified as neutral more than boys did (d = 0.29). Preferences for gender-typical over gender-atypical toys were also large and significant (d ≥ 1.20), and girls and boys showed gender-related differences of similar magnitude. When only dolls and vehicles were considered, within-sex differences were even larger and of comparable size for boys and girls. Researchers sometimes misclassified toys, perhaps contributing to an apparent gender difference in preference for neutral toys. Forced choice methods produced larger gender-related differences than other methods, and gender-related differences increased with age.Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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The social representation of gender and young children's play

Cited by 14 publications

References 6 publications

The effects of age and gender on social behaviour in very young children

The effects of age and gender on social behaviour in very young children

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

How Large Are Gender Differences in Toy Preferences? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Toy Preference Research

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