Nouveaux Jouets: ce que les Enfants Identifient Comme « jouets de garçons » et « jouets de filles »
Document Type
Article - Open Access
Publication Title
Enfance
Publication Date
3-2006
Abstract/ Summary
New toys for tots: What preschoolers identify as “boy and girl toys”
Interaction with toys can be seen as the gateway to many aspects of children’s socialization and cognitive development in early childhood. The present study examined the reasoning of two-to five-year-old boys’ and girls’ classifications of toy pictures. A total of 47 children were shown male, female, neutral, and ambiguous toy pictures and asked to identify “ boy ” and “ girl ” toys and to comment why they had made these choices. The preschoolers showed differential stereotyping by age groups and gender. Older children and boys held stronger gender stereotype preferences than younger children and girls. Boys were more likely to identify neutral and ambiguous toys as male toys whereas girls did not differ in their classification of neutral toys. The most common reason for associating a neutral and male toy with a particular sex was gender association, whereas for ambiguous toys, preschoolers made decisions based on color and their interest in playing with the toy. No clear pattern emerged for female toys.
Repository Citation
Cherney Isabelle D., Harper Hilary J., Winter Jordan A., « Nouveaux jouets : ce que les enfants identifient comme “ jouets de garçons ” et “ jouets de filles ”. », Enfance 3/2006 (Vol. 58) , p. 266-282.