Gender Differences in Children's Toy Preferences: Research Review

Introduction: Gender, Society, and Toy Preferences

Gender is determined through social interaction, while sex is biological. Gender-specific behaviors are usually instilled in children by their families, their communities, and the media. As noted by Moyles (2012), children typically accept gender stereotypes, they "identify with the stereotypical role of the gender," and sometimes children — especially boys — "punish others who exhibit cross-gender behaviors and traits" (Moyles, 65). This paper delves into the issue of gender-based reasoning and references peer-reviewed research articles that investigate gender-related attraction to toys.

Hormonal Influences on Toy Selection

Girls who have congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and who had high levels of androgen while in the womb showed "increased play with boys' toys" and less play with girls' toys (Berenbaum et al., 1992). Writing in the journal Psychological Science, the authors concluded that hormones — specifically androgens — play a role in determining which toys girls and boys prefer. In other words, when females experience elevated hormone exposure during their prenatal development, that exposure produces a "masculinizing effect" on gender-typed toy preferences (Berenbaum, 203).

Preschool Children's Gender-Typed Choices

Research published in the peer-reviewed journal Child Study Journal examined the choices made by preschool children regarding book themes and toy selection. The authors studied thirty-six boys and thirty-six girls between the ages of two and four. Consistent with conventional findings, boys were observed to be more aggressive than girls across multiple countries, including the United States, Switzerland, Finland, Ethiopia, and Brazil. More notably, the research found that boys tend to limit themselves "more than girls to gender-specific toy choices" (Collins-Standley, 1996). Girls, on the other hand, were "less bound by gender prescriptions" and more often than boys "crossed gender lines in their choices of toys" (Collins-Standley, 2).

Infant Behavior and Early Gender Tendencies

Research conducted by Andree Pomerleau and colleagues indicates that even at one year of age, children begin to exhibit gender-related tendencies. This peer-reviewed study involved sixty five-month-old girls and boys. When various toys were placed within reach, significant differences in the infants' responses emerged — differences that are highly relevant to the broader theme of gender development in early childhood.

The study, published in The Journal of Genetic Psychology, placed sixty five-month-old boys and girls in a laboratory setting. Each child was seated at a table on the lap of an assistant — a very young age for structured observation. Each toy (some familiar, some unfamiliar) was placed on the table in front of the baby for two minutes after the child first touched it. The scientists measured both the frequency and the duration of each child's fixation on the toy. Eight categories of handling behaviors and five categories of lateralization were observed and recorded.

A key finding was that girls "spent more time than boys did in simultaneous hand contact with and visual fixation on their own familiar toy" (Pomerleau, 47). Boys, by contrast, made more frequent physical contact with the familiar toy but did not visually fixate on it as the girls did. Girls were also more reluctant than boys to touch any unfamiliar object placed at arm's length on the table. Boys were more inclined to touch, pinch, turn, and hit the objects.

In one set of experiments involving seven trials, parents were invited to remain in the room at some distance from the infant. Four toys were placed consecutively on the table approximately eleven centimeters from the baby: an abstract wooden blue figure, a Fisher-Price colored train, a toy familiar to each individual infant, and a small orange plastic "bird-like figure" (Pomerleau, 50). Girls spent a markedly higher percentage of their time in "simultaneous contact-fixation" with familiar toys (56.09%) compared to boys (36.65%) (Pomerleau, 53). Among infant boys, the rate of "contact-only responses" with familiar toys was considerably higher than it was for girls.

The conclusion of this study indicated that five-month-old infants display a range of behaviors that are not strictly gender-related. However, boys were notably less attentive to familiar objects placed in front of them, and the researchers suggested that these early behavioral differences might be "precursors" of the gendered behaviors that boys and girls will exhibit later in life. These findings align with broader research in developmental and behavioral science on early-life sex differences.

Works Cited

Berenbaum, S. A., and Hines, M. (1992). Early androgens are related to childhood sex-typed toy preferences. Psychological Science, 3(3), 203–206.

Collins-Standley, T. (1996). Choice of romantic, violent, and scary fairy-tale books by preschool girls and boys. Child Study Journal, 26(4), 279–103.

Moyles, J. (2012). A–Z play in early childhood. New York City: McGraw-Hill International.

Pomerleau, A., Malcuit, G., and Seguin, R. (1992). Five-month-old girls' and boys' exploratory behaviors in the presence of familiar and unfamiliar toys. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 153(1), 47–61.