PR Case Sharing: CUHK Faculty of Social Science Research Release Series – Gender Studies Programme and Department of Psychology Research Release
- Prologue Editorial
- Nov 6
- 4 min read
A Local Study Across 7 Years
Significant Connections Between Childhood Gender-Typed Play Experiences & Future STEM Performance and Career Choices
The Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF has consistently advocated that children should have at least one hour of “free play” daily, as play not only contributes to their overall physical and mental development, but is also one of the three key elements of early childhood development.
Under the CUHK Faculty of Social Science (FSSC) research release series, the Prologue team has recently supported the Gender Studies Programme and the Department of Psychology in the release of the “Toys Are Us” study by coordinating media interviews and crafting media messages.
Prof. WONG Wang Ivy, Associate Dean (Impact and Development), Faculty of Social Science; Associate Professor & Director of Gender Studies Programme; Associate Professor of Department of Psychology (By Courtesy) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), has spent years exploring the relationship between play experiences and child development. Since 2014, Prof. WONG and her team have conducted a longitudinal study tracking the play preferences and mental transformation skills of over 200 children in Hong Kong. Spanning approximately seven years, the findings reveal a significant link between children’s gender-typed play experiences and their later spatial skills development. This suggests that play experiences may shape future performance in STEM fields, as well as influence subsequent career choices and achievements.
Prof. WONG stated, “Most of the previous international studies in this field have employed cross-sectional designs, with very few longitudinal or experimental studies and those only feature short-term follow-up periods and small sample sizes. In contrast, our study uses a long-term cross-lagged panel model that tracks the same participant cohort across approximately seven years, from kindergarten through early adolescence. This approach enables a more robust investigation of bidirectional and temporal relationships — not only analyzing simple correlations or one-way effects.”
Mental transformation, which involves imagining how objects look when transformed, rotated, or moved, is a crucial spatial skill. Spatial skills also include judgment of line angles, and left-right orientation, etc. In daily life, Prof WONG suggested that parents could observe children’s ability to distinguish directions, build models, solve puzzles, spot differences, draw, and do origami as ways to assess their spatial skills.
The study found that children (regardless of gender) who played more with boy-typical toys showed better mental transformation skills, which also predicted that skills as they grew older. The seven-year longitudinal study revealed the expected male advantage, with boys scoring higher than girls on mental transformation tests at both T1 and T2. The findings support the assumption among developmental psychologists that boy-typical toys contain heavier spatial elements and provide more spatial training.
Prof. WONG continued, “The study features a sample size considered large in the tradition of research that requires testing children individually and following up over time. The sample encompasses children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, genders, and age ranges within Hong Kong. It rigorously controls for socioeconomic status (SES), gender, and age to analyze their potential moderating effects. Additionally, we carefully selected spatial skills measurement tools that were gender-sensitive and developmentally validated. We combined research team observations, parent report and child self-report of play behavior and multiple play indicators such as play preference, frequency, accessibility, and diversity to analyze the relationship between children’s play experiences and the development of their spatial skills.”
For the full research paper, please click this link to learn more:
📍Feature Interview Highlight:
HK01: 中大研究：男性典型遊戲助訓練空間技能 提醒業界應注重性別差異 [Link]
SCMP: Hong Kong study finds giving girls toys aimed at boys can boost STEM skills [Link]
香港經濟日報：玩具選擇影響空間技能發展 性別標籤或減孩童STEM能力 [Link]
TOPick: 兒童發展｜男仔數理較強易入神科？原來玩具是關鍵 中大7年追蹤研究揭秘：男孩玩具提升空間能力 [Link]
Yellow Bus: 遊戲體驗與玩具選擇影響兒童STEM技能發展 [Link]
RTHK (自由風自由Phone): 研究指「性別化遊戲」影響兒童未來STEM表現 [Link]
RTHK (Backchat): Study on toys and gender [Link]
📍Media Coverage Highlight:
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