A long-term prospective cross-lagged study of gender-typed play and mental transformation in children.

Gender-typed play may contribute to gender disparities in spatial skills, but evidence of this link is limited. Gender-typed play and mental transformation, an important spatial skill, were studied using age-appropriate and comprehensive measures. Chinese children were tested at 5-6 years and at 11-14 years (N = 210), creating a long-term data set considering bidirectional associations.