A long-term prospective cross-lagged study of gender-typed play and mental transformation in children

Gender-typed play may contribute to gender disparities in spatial skills, but evidence of this link is limited. Gender-typed play and mental transformation, an important spatial skill, were studied using age-appropriate and comprehensive measures. Chinese children were tested at 5-6 years and at 11-14 years (N = 210), creating a long-term data set considering bidirectional associations. Play and mental transformation showed moderate to large gender differences. Importantly, boy-typical play positively predicted mental transformation, while girl-typical play negatively predicted it. Results were largely consistent across gender and socioeconomic status and when play was coded by spatialness. They suggest that play is an important socialization experience and illuminates the developmental origins of gender disparities in spatial skills.