Children's games and toys as a factor of formation of adolescents’ personal characteristics

Game is a principal activity of children and is always present in human life, being one of the most important elements of childhood. Currently, new games and toys appear at a warp speed and their influence on the formation of a child's personality has not been fully studied. The problem of development of personality characteristics of teenagers has always been in the center of attention of scientists and still occupies an important place in psychology. The purpose of the empirical study is to identify the relationship between the games and toys preferred in childhood and the personality of a teenager. The main hypothesis of the study was that there is a relationship between the personality of adolescents and the games and toys that they preferred in childhood. We also put forward a specific hypothesis that the features of toys and games are interconnected with the personality of teenagers. Our study involved 49 15-18 years old adolescents (25 girls and 24 boys). Respondents were interviewed through online and offline testing, using such techniques as "Personal Differential", "Q Methodology", and "Ways to overcome negative situations" as well as the questionnaire developed by the author.

The study found that the features of toy do not play a big role for a teenager’s personality formation while the characteristics of game are decisive.