ORIGINAL ARTICLE Gender-Typed Play and Social Abilities in Boys and Girls: Are They Related? Rebecca Y. Hei Li 1 & Wang Ivy Wong 1 Published online: 17 February 2016 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016 Abstract In the present study, we tested whether children’ s play with feminine toys is related to social abilities in which girls typically excel. We measured gender-typed toy play, em- pathy, and comforting skill in 80 Grade 1 children (about 6 years-old) in Hong Kong, China. Toy play was assessed with a standard observational paradigm; empathy, with the Empathy Quotient-Child Questionnaire; and comforting skill, with an infant-cry paradigm requiring the generation of comforting strategies. As predicted, boys and girls differed in their preferences for play with masculine and feminine toys, but not for gender-neutral toys. Importantly, toy play was re- lated to comforting skill. Girls scored higher on the comforting task, and girls who played more with feminine toys and boys who played more with gender-neutral toys gen- erated more comforting strategies. Regression and mediation- al analyses also suggested a stronger role of gender-typed play on comforting than the other way round. Contrary to hypoth- esis, there was no gender difference in empathy, and no rela- tionship between empathy and toy play. These results extend previous understandings of the link between play and devel- opment and suggest that early gender-typed experiences may have long-term consequences for the development of some social skills. Keywords Gender differences . Gender-typed play . Toys . Gender socialization . Social skills Often gender-typed social skills, including empathy and being able to comfort others, are implicated in adults’ interests and involvement as caregivers, including parenting (Blakemore et al. 2009; Hyde 2005), and may be increasingly valued among employers in 21 st century service-focused labor mar- kets (Deming 2015). Furthermore, exhibiting these social skills in childhood reliably predicts later social relations and academic achievement, at least in U.S. and European samples (Caprara et al. 2000; Eisenberg et al. 2010; Eisenberg and Miller 1987). Thus the purpose of the present study is to ex- plore how young girls’ and boys’ behaviors, specifically gender-typed play, might influence the development of these social skills of empathy and comforting. We observed toy play in 80 Grade 1 (approximately 6 years-old) girls and boys in Hong Kong, China, a culture that shows gender-typed behav- iors and experiences similar to those found in the West (Lee and Collins 2008; Lobel et al. 2000; Yu et al. 2010). Specifically, we examined whether boys and girls who pre- ferred to play with feminine (masculine) toys would show higher (lower) levels of empathy (as reported by parents) and comforting skill (as indicated by the number of comforting strategies generated in response to an infant cry- ing), and whether toy play mediated the relationship between children’ s gender and their empathy and comforting skills. Gender Differences in Empathy and Comforting Empathy is the intellectual apprehension of another’ s mental state (cognitive empathy) and an appropriate emotional re- sponse to others (affective empathy) (Lawrence et al. 2004). Comforting is an aspect of prosocial behaviors which encom- passes voluntary behaviors undertaken with the primary goal of doing good to another person (Burleson 1982). From an early age, girls appear to be exposed to more opportunities to * Wang Ivy Wong iwwong@hku.hk 1 Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong Sex Roles (2016) 74:399–410 DOI 10.1007/s11199-016-0580-7