Are Disney Princesses Damaging Little Girls’ Self-Esteem?

Allowing little girls to spend too much time immersed in Disney’s princess culture may be damaging to their self-esteem while serving to reinforce potentially limiting gender stereotypes.

Those are the conclusions drawn following a small-scale study conducted by Brigham Young University family life professor Sarah M. Coyne. Her study concluded that exposure to the princess culture may influence preschoolers to embrace gender stereotypes that can limit young women in the long run.

Coyne’s study involved 198 preschoolers and focused on how much they interacted with Disney princess movies, toys and more. Researchers found that 96 percent of girls and 87 percent of boys had been exposed to Disney princess media in one form or another. Of the girls in the study, more than 61 percent played with princess toys at least once a week. Only about 4 percent of boys played with such toys regularly.

Researchers found that increased princess interactions predicted higher female gender-stereotyped behavior a year later.

“We know that girls who strongly adhere to female gender stereotypes feel like they can’t do some things,” Coyne said, according to BYU News. “They’re not as confident that they can do well in math and science. They don’t like getting dirty, so they’re less likely to try and experiment with things.”

In regard to boys, enhanced female stereotypical behaviors can actually prove to be a good thing, researchers say. The study found that boys who engaged with princess media tended to be more helpful to others and had better body self-esteem.

Coyne doesn’t recommend parents scrap princesses all together to avoid gender stereotyping. Moderation, she said, can go a long way.

“Have your kids involved in all sorts of activities, and just have princesses be one of many, many things that they like to do and engage with,” she said.

The full study was published in Child Development.

What are your thoughts on this? Share them by commenting below!

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney World News/By Ali Nasser