A mother said: my daughter never play dolls, like cars, dinosaurs, like to play pirates, so the future is sure to be a brat!
Some mothers say: my son likes stuffed animals and house toys, which are loved by girls, no boyishness at all, how to do? How to guide?
In fact, these concerns are completely unnecessary. An experiment at the University of Kent and Western University proved that children who can accept typical toys of the opposite sex have more inclusive personalities.
Toy preference: boys and girls are born different
Some psychologists have summarized the characteristics of boys' toys / girls' toys as perceived by everyone.
Generally, girls' toys are "beautiful", favoring nurturing themes, showing domestic skills, such as dolls, dolls matching houses, beds, clothing, necklaces and jewelry, and kitchen toys, etc..
Boys' toys are "powerful" and competitive, bringing a sense of excitement and even danger, such as a variety of cars and planes, weapons, soccer balls, superhero costumes and so on.
Toys are divided into boys and girls because boys and girls are born with different preferences for toys. But for the individual, this is not absolute.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine and the Chicago Medical School have conducted similar boy toy/girl toy preference experiments with boys and girls aged 3 to 8 years, and counted the time boys and girls spent interacting with toys of different genders.
The results of the experiment show that boys generally and obviously prefer boys' toys, while girls are involved in both types of toy choices, and a large percentage of girls will also like the so-called boys' toys. Therefore, we will find that many girls will also like the traditionally seen as boys' toys excavators, Ultraman ...
Regarding children's preference for boys' toys and girls' toys, Finnish pediatric clinicians have found that this preference is related to the level of testosterone, a hormone in babies' bodies.(Lamminm ki et al., 2012)
The researchers tested the hormone levels of 38 newborns (22 males and 26 females) born at full term every month until they were 6 months old. The babies were also given a toy preference test when they were 14 years old. The babies were provided with three toys for boys, three toys for girls, and three toys for neutrals (e.g., keys, picture books, etc.), and the time the babies spent interacting with each toy was recorded.
The final statistics showed that the higher the testosterone in the body, the more it favored boy toys, and the lower the testosterone, the more it favored girl toys, and the boys with lower testosterone levels in the experiment also interacted with the dolls.
Gender Stereotypes Influence:Children's Toy Choices
In the choice of toys for boys and girls, in addition to the factors of birth, the influence of the acquired environment should not be underestimated. People will choose toys for children based on their gender stereotypes.
The BBC has an episode of "Girl toys vs boy toys: The experiment".
In the experiment, the two babies of different genders swapped outfits, with the boy wearing a little skirt and the girl wearing a plaid shirt, and temporarily taking names that were the opposite of their genders. Now, in the eyes of the adults, Edward, a boy baby, became a girl baby, and Marine, a girl baby, became a boy baby.
When the volunteers selected interactive toys for the two babies, the boys' toys for Edward were dolls and stuffed animals, which are traditionally girls' toys; similarly, the volunteers chose robots and cars for Marine, which are traditionally boys' toys.
Boys should play with boys' toys and girls should play with girls' toys. Often, this is a "gender stereotype" that parents unintentionally impose on their children. The behavior of adults with gender stereotypes can also influence children's choice of toys, which is especially evident in girls.
In an interview with children ages 3 to 5, staff asked the children what they wanted most for Christmas. Each age group was found to have 75% of the boys' gift list of boys' toys. But girls' choices varied greatly; at age 3, only 29 percent of baby girls chose girls' toys, at age 4 that percentage was 51 percent, and when it came to age 5, it had reached 75 percent, the same as boys.
The worse thing is that some parents are often accompanied by the output of stereotypes when choosing toys for their children, such as boys are men who can't cry and should be strong; girls should be well-behaved and better at taking care of others, etc.
Oregon State University and the University of California have done a study on the effects of different toys on the future careers available to girls (Sherman & Zurbriggen, 2014), and from the findings: the output of gender stereotypes can limit children's development.
In the study, seven girls aged 4 to 7 were randomly classified into two groups and assigned different toys to interact with for five minutes: a group of Barbie dolls, a girl's toy with clear gender differentiation, and a group of potato head dolls with less clear gender differentiation traits. The girls were then asked to answer what they thought they could do in their future career.
Play House Pony Kitchen Satchel Set
The researchers categorized five female-dominated occupations: teachers, librarians, daily caregivers, flight attendants and nurses and five male-dominated occupations: construction workers, firefighters, pilots, doctors and police officers.
Combined with parental questionnaires about their children's Barbie play at home, the results were that girls who played with Barbie generally believed they could pursue fewer types of careers in the future, but believed boys could pursue any career; girls who played with potato head dolls believed they were no different from boys.
It can be seen that parents stereotypically characterize their children's toys according to their gender, which may also limit the various possibilities for their children's future development and narrow their future path.
Letting children choose their own toys: the best way to parent
A collaborative experiment between the University of Kent and Western University proved that adults' tolerance of children playing with toys of the opposite sex also affects children's judgment and personality.
When 82 children aged 4-7 years were grouped together to look at a series of pictures, one group showed children playing with toys of their own gender and the other group showed children playing with toys of the other gender (Spinner, Cameron &Calogero, 2018).
The researchers then showed the children the toys, which were highly characteristic of boy/girl toys, one by one, and asked the children if they liked the toy, scoring the extent to which they liked or disliked it. The children were also asked who would come with the toy, the boy or the girl.
The results of the experiment demonstrated that children who looked at or played with toys from the other gender group were more inclusive in their preference of toy types and choice of playmate gender. If children live in an inclusive environment and are able to accept themselves or others playing with toys of the opposite gender, this also facilitates the development of the child's own inclusiveness.
In other words, the best way to choose toys for your child is to: try to prepare a diversity of toys for your child, and let your child choose the toys he or she likes.
Not interfering with a child's choice of toys based on gender is a wise way to parent.
