This paper investigates the intersection of biological and social factors in gender-related toy preferences during early childhood. Drawing on peer-reviewed research including studies of girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, cross-cultural observations of preschoolers, and infant exploratory behavior experiments, the paper examines how hormonal exposure and gender socialization influence toy selection. The research demonstrates that gender-typed preferences emerge as early as five months of age, with boys showing greater exploratory contact-seeking behavior and girls displaying more focused visual fixation on familiar objects. The paper synthesizes findings suggesting that both prenatal hormones and family-based gender learning contribute to gendered play patterns observed in young children across multiple cultures.
It is widely recognized that gender is determined through social interaction, while sex is biological. Gender-specific behaviors are usually instilled in children by their families, communities, and the media, according to Professor Janet Moyles (Moyles, 2012). Moyles explains that children typically accept gender stereotypes and "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 examines the issue of gender-based reasoning and references peer-reviewed research articles that investigate gender-related attraction to toys. Understanding the origins of gendered toy preferences requires examining both biological and social mechanisms that influence children's play choices from infancy onward.
Research on hormonal influences has provided compelling evidence for biological contributions to gender-typed toy preferences. Girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) who had high levels of androgen in utero 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 (androgens) play a significant role in which toys girls and boys select. When females have hormone exposure during prenatal development, that exposure produces a "masculinizing effect" on gender-typed toy preferences (Berenbaum, 203).
Contrasting findings emerge from cross-cultural behavioral studies. Research in the peer-reviewed journal Child Study Journal examined the toy and book choices of preschool children. The authors studied thirty-six boys and thirty-six girls (ages two through four) and observed that, consistent with conventional expectations, boys are more aggressive than girls in the United States, Switzerland, Finland, Ethiopia, Brazil, and elsewhere. However, the most interesting finding was that boys tend to limit themselves "more than girls to gender-specific toy choices" (Collins-Standley, 1996). Girls, by contrast, were "less bound by gender prescriptions" and more often than boys they "crossed gender lines in their choices of toys" (Collins-Standley, 2). This suggests that socialization pressures may constrain boys' play choices more rigidly than girls', despite the hormonal evidence linking androgens to masculine-typed preferences.
Research conducted by Andree Pomerleau and colleagues indicates that even when a child is only five months old, they are exhibiting gender-related tendencies. This peer-reviewed investigation involved sixty infants and provided detailed behavioral observations relevant to understanding when gendered preferences first appear.
The Pomerleau study addresses a fundamental developmental question: At what age do boys and girls begin to show gender preferences, and how do very young children respond to toys familiar versus unfamiliar to their own gender? The research design placed sixty five-month-old boys and girls in a laboratory setting seated at a table on the lap of an assistant. 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 the frequency and duration of each child's fixation on the toy, recording eight categories of handling behaviors and five categories of lateralization. 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 familiar toys but did not visually fixate on them as girls did. Girls were also more reluctant than boys to touch unfamiliar objects placed at arm's length on the table. Boys showed greater exploratory tendencies, touching, pinching, turning, and hitting toys more readily.
In one experiment 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 eleven centimeters from the baby: an abstract wooden blue figure, a Fisher-Price colored train, one toy familiar to each infant, and a small orange plastic "bird-like figure" (Pomerleau, 50). Girls spent a much higher percentage of their time in "simultaneous contact-fixation" with familiar toys (56.09%) than boys did (36.65%) (Pomerleau, 53). In contrast, boys showed considerably higher rates of "contact-only responses" with familiar toys compared to girls. The conclusion of this scientifically significant study showed that five-month-old infants display a variety of behaviors with important gender differences. Specifically, boys were much less attentive to familiar objects placed before them, and these behaviors might be "precursors" of behaviors that boys and girls will exhibit later in life.
"Longitudinal research questions for follow-up studies"
"Future directions and family-based gender learning"
You’re 68% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 2 sections.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.