Background. The family environment plays a decisive role in shaping a child’s cultural orientations, including play activity. However, parents’ perceptions of play may not align with its subjective meaning for the child. In this context, it is essential to understand how adults notice, interpret, and evaluate their children’s play, as they are the ones who create the conditions for the development of this activity.
Objective. To identify the characteristics of parental perceptions of play preferences among toddlers and preschoolers, depending on the family’s sociocultural status (parents’ education level and family structure) and the child’s gender and age.
Sample. The study involved 42.530 parents (aged 18–56) of children aged 2 to 7 years from various regions of the Russian Federation, including 41.234 women and 1,296 men.
Methods. A parental questionnaire survey was conducted as part of the study. A questionnaire designed to study parents’ perceptions of children’s gaming preferences was used to collect data. It was developed under the supervision of V.S. Sobkin at the Center for Sociology of Education of the Russian Academy of Education in 1997 and modified in 2025. Respondents were asked to sel ect up to five types of play their child preferred fr om a list of twelve categories. Additional sociodemographic data about the family were also collected. Data analysis employed methods of mathematical statistics, including frequency analysis, Pearson’s chi-square (c²) test, and exploratory factor analysis (principal component method with Varimax rotation), using SPSS Statistics 27.
Results. The findings revealed differences in how parents perceive the play preferences of preschool-aged boys and girls, depending on family structure and parental education level. Two bipolar factors emerged in parental perception of children’s play types: “Creative Self-Expression vs. Spatial Exploration” and “Independent Rule-Following vs. Adult Supervision,” along with one unipolar factor: “Child’s Investigative Stance.”
Conclusions. The data highlight specific patterns in how parents perceive their children’s play. These perceptions are shaped by parental gender stereotypes: creative and emotionally expressive forms of activity are more frequently attributed to girls, while physically active and constructive types of play are associated with boys. This polarization appears as early as toddlerhood and persists throughout the preschool years. Moreover, parents’ ability to recognize manifestations of initiative, imagination, and investigative interest in their child’s play is linked to their level of education.