Parents' gender perception in toy selection and the effect of personality on purchasing chocies

The toy is a very important and functional consumption object that plays a role in the physical, emotional, mental, and social development of the child. In addition to being a game object, it is also a product that reflects gender roles and carries traces of social norms. This object, which has become very diversified and demanded in recent years, is also a tool that provides the transfer of social perception of gender between the child, parent, and society triangle. The current social perception also significantly influences the consumption practices of parents on toys. Today, most of the brands present toys to the consumers by differentiating them in terms of color, shape, content, function, and giving them a gender. They reinforce the gender of the product with promotional activities such as advertisements, animated films, cartoons, and YouTube children's channels Despite all these gender indicators used, the awareness and attitude of the parents are important. In this context, the aim of this study is to examine the attitudes of parents towards gender indicators such as color, shape and content that companies use in toys and to determine the gender perception and cultural codes that affect these attitudes. In this context, the study was designed with a mixed-method using qualitative and quantitative research methods. As a data collection tool in the quantitative research part; the purchase intention scale, gender role attitude scale, personality scale were used. The questionnaire was applied online to parents who have children between the ages of 0-6. Data analysis was made with the SPSS program and interpreted. It has been found that gender perception affects the intention to buy toys. Gender perceptions of parents in choosing toys differ significantly according to their demographic characteristics. It was determined that the purchasing intentions of the parents differed significantly according to their demographic characteristics and educational status. In the qualitative research part, in-depth interviews were conducted with the parents using a semi-structured interview form. The data were interpreted with the ATLAS.ti program using descriptive and content analysis methods. 7 themes were determined. These themes are; family-child relationship, parent's genderless childhood, play- toy relationship, toy buying behavior, toy selection criteria, gender perception, the effect of colors on gender perception.