Lipowska Kornelia, Łada-Maśko Ariadna Beata
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Developmental Psychology and Psychopathology, Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Gdańsk, 80-309 Gdańsk, Poland.
Children (Basel). 2021 Aug 28;8(9):744. doi: 10.3390/children8090744.
Children learn to understand gender categories and roles typical for women and men from the earliest stages of their life. Toys, by which they are surrounded in everyday routine, may have a significant role in their knowledge of cultural norms and societal expectations, but also might have a great impact on children's health in the context of psychosocial development. Parental attitudes can also be an important moderator of the choice of gender-stereotyped toys. The aim of the study was to investigate parents' perspectives on toys' appropriateness for children according to gender, and to analyze parents' knowledge about the labeling of toys in shops. In total, 526 parents from big cities participated in the study; to assess parental knowledge and perspectives on toys' categorization, The World of Toys questionnaire was used. The results indicated that most parents from big cities observe that toys are arranged according to the child's age and sex and the toys' functionality. Moreover, in parents' opinion, the compliance with the role of a woman or man affects categorization the most. Furthermore, both parents tended to attribute toys to both sexes more often than they believe the stores do. To conclude, despite the still visible division of toys in shops, Polish parents from big cities are more liberal and egalitarian than shops are when it comes to the perception of toys' appropriateness, allowing children to play with most toys regardless of their sex.
儿童从生命的最初阶段就开始学习理解女性和男性典型的性别类别和角色。他们在日常生活中接触到的玩具，可能在他们对文化规范和社会期望的认知中发挥重要作用，但在心理社会发展的背景下，也可能对儿童健康产生重大影响。父母的态度也可能是影响儿童选择性别刻板玩具的一个重要调节因素。本研究的目的是调查父母对于玩具按性别适合儿童程度的看法，并分析父母对商店中玩具标签的了解情况。共有来自大城市的526名家长参与了该研究；为评估父母对玩具分类的了解和看法，使用了《玩具世界》问卷。结果表明，大多数来自大城市的家长观察到玩具是根据孩子的年龄、性别以及玩具的功能来分类摆放的。此外，在家长看来，符合女性或男性角色对玩具分类影响最大。此外，与他们认为商店的分类方式相比，父母双方都更倾向于将玩具归为两类。总之，尽管商店里玩具的分类仍然明显，但在对玩具适合性的认知方面，来自大城市的波兰父母比商店更为开明和平等，允许孩子玩大多数玩具，而不考虑其性别。
