Poster #183 - Build-a-Dad: Children’s Relational Play with LEGO Bricks

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

Although many interventions are directed toward increasing girls’ interest in spatial play and toys, few interventions are directed at boys’ nurturing and relational play. Toys traditionally played with by girls often are paired with family characters, and subsequently girls use relational themes more often in pretend play. It may be that girls are building efficacy for familial and domestic tasks during this type of play, while boys have less opportunity to build important relational skills.
LEGO sets are increasingly perceived to be “boy toys” and contain a higher preponderance of masculine/action themes than feminine/relational themes (Black et al., 2016). Unsurprisingly, boys report more experience with and interest in LEGO toys than do girls. The narrow variety of themes of current Lego sets offers boys fewer chances for domestic or relationship pretend play.
We designed a study in which children were randomly assigned to play with LEGO figurine of their gender and a set of accessories to go with it. Older participants’ (ages 6-10 years) figurines were paired with either a baby and stroller, a hot dog cart, a lawn mower, or no accessory; younger participants’ (ages 3-5 years) figurines were paired with either a baby and stroller or no accessory. After a play session, children answered a series of questions about the figurine and about their future selves. Older children also constructed something with LEGO bricks that the figurine would “need or want”. These constructions were coded for masculinity.
We predicted that including a baby with a LEGO figurine would promote more nurturing and relational play in boys than would the inclusion of any of the other accessories. We expected that children who played with a figurine that came with a baby would envision a future of childcare. The current sample includes 91 older children and 56 younger children. Data collection is ongoing.
Our results showed that, in the younger group, girls predicted that they would do more future childcare than did boys. There was also a gender by condition effect; in the group of children whose figurine was paired with the baby, girls envisioned more future childcare for themselves than did boys (Figure 1). There was no gender difference in predicted future childcare in the group of children whose figurine was alone. For young girls, playing with a baby may build efficacy for relational skills; however, this atypical play for boys may activate stereotypes about family roles.
For older children, condition effects emerged such that the figurine with the baby was perceived to be older and more likely to be a parent than did the other figurines. The figurine with baby was less likely to be seen as a worker than was the minifig with the hot dog cart. However, the paired accessory had no effect on the masculinity of the structures that older children built for their figurine. Our results indicate that, even within LEGO play, the accompanying accessories can change children’s play with these toys and activate gendered differentiated play scripts and ideas about one’s own roles.
 

Authors

• Megan Fulcher, Washington and Lee University
  Presenting Author

• Amy Roberson Hayes, The University of Texas, Tyler
  Non-Presenting Author

• M. Davis Straske, Washington and Lee University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marie Baldwin, Washington and Lee University
  Non-Presenting Author