There are significant gender differences in both play behavior and occupational interests. Play has been regarded as an important medium for development of skills and personal characteristics. Play may also influence subsequent preferences through social and cognitive processes involved in gender development. The present study investigated the association between gender-typed play behavior in early childhood and gender-typed occupational interests in early adolescence. Participants were drawn from a British longitudinal population study, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Participants were recruited based on their parent-reported gender-typed play behavior assessed at age 3.5 years. There were 66 masculine boys and 61 masculine girls, 82 feminine boys and 69 feminine girls, and 55 randomly selected control boys and 67 randomly selected control girls. At age 13 years, the participants were administered a questionnaire assessing their interest in gender-typed occupations. It was found that masculine children showed significantly more interest in male-typical occupations than did control or feminine children. Compared with control children, feminine children had marginally significantly lower interest in male-typical jobs. Masculine children also had significantly lower interest in female-typical jobs than did control or feminine children. The associations were not moderated by gender and were observed after taking into account sociodemographic background, parental occupations, and academic performance. The degree of gender-typed play shown by preschoolers can predict their occupational interests 10 years later following transition into adolescence. Childhood gender-typed play has occupational implications that transcend developmental stages.

在游戏行为和职业兴趣方面存在显着的性别差异。游戏被视为发展技能和个人特征的重要媒介。游戏还可能通过性别发展所涉及的社会和认知过程影响随后的偏好。本研究调查了儿童早期性别类型的游戏行为与青春期早期的性别类型的职业兴趣之间的关系。参与者来自英国纵向人口研究，即雅芳父母和儿童纵向研究。参与者是根据他们在 3.5 岁时评估的父母报告的性别类型游戏行为来招募的。男男66人，女女61人，男男82人，女女69人，55 名随机选择的对照男孩和 67 名随机选择的对照女孩。在 13 岁时，参与者接受了一份问卷调查，评估他们对性别类型职业的兴趣。结果发现，与对照组或女性儿童相比，男性儿童对男性典型职业的兴趣明显更高。与对照组儿童相比，女性儿童对男性典型工作的兴趣略微显着降低。与对照组或女性儿童相比，男性儿童对女性典型工作的兴趣也显着降低。这些关联不受性别影响，是在考虑社会人口背景、父母职业和学习成绩后观察到的。学龄前儿童表现出的性别类型游戏的程度可以预测他们过渡到青春期后 10 年后的职业兴趣。童年性别类型的游戏具有超越发展阶段的职业影响。