Premium
Sex differences in 1‐, 3‐, and 5‐year‐olds' toy‐choice in a structured play‐session
Author(s) -
Servin Anna,
Bohlin Gunilla,
Berlin Lisa
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9450.00096
Subject(s) - session (web analytics) , psychology , human factors and ergonomics , suicide prevention , developmental psychology , injury prevention , poison control , social psychology , medical emergency , advertising , medicine , business
This cross‐sectional study investigated toy‐choice in 38 one‐year‐old, 33 three‐year‐old, and 35 five‐year‐old children, who could choose between 10 different toys (four feminine, four masculine, and two neutral) in a structured play‐session. The children played alone for 7 minutes and together with their accompanying parent for another 7 minutes (play‐status). The results showed that girls and boys chose different toys from as early as the age of one year (Mdn=12 months). These sex differences were found at all three ages. In contradiction to earlier studies, our results showed that feminine toys became less interesting for both girls and boys with increasing age. The present study showed no consistent effects of play‐status. This study contributes to the knowledge of how early behavioral sex differences can be observed, how these differences develop, and it also raises questions concerning what sex differences stem from.