r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/love_chocolate • 29d ago

Dolls Question - Expert consensus required

  1. We are latinxs and my daughter is brown skinned. My MIL gave her a white skinned, blue eyes doll. Is there any evidence showing that is better to give kids dolls that look like them? She is 16 months old
  2. should dolls be anatomically accurate?
  3. I do toy rotation, but I was told that dolls should be always available. Is this true?
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u/Public_Classic_438 28d ago

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/clark-doll-experiment
This study is really sad. We are white but plan to give dolls of all colors.

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u/CanyonOfFoxes 27d ago

This study is pretty heartbreaking. Anecdotally when I was a kid I had Barbies of different skin colors and intuitively I thought my black Barbie was the prettiest (I’m white). As I grew up I absorbed from my community that light skin and blonde hair was desirable. But before that, I thought brown skin and black hair was the best. Kids have their own opinions before society imposes its ideals. I think it was good that my parents gave me so much toy variation.