Children's Socialization to Gender Identity: A Study of Laurie Frankel’s This Is How It Always Is

Abstract

The actions and behaviors exhibited by parents play a significant role in shaping the development of gender identity in their children. Several previous studies about gender identity formation in the family context have been published (Bandura & Bussey, 1999; Berenbaum et al., 2006; Boe & Woods, 2018; Friedman et al., 2007; Huston, 1983; Leaper, 2002; Martin & Ruble, 1998; McHale et al., 2003). However, though this study maintains this emphasis, it also broadens it in significant ways using an ecological perspective that focuses on the interaction between individual characteristics and ecological surroundings (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998). Moreover, this topic's application to literary works appears to be uncommon. There have yet to be any comprehensive investigations into the same subject. The objective of the current study is to examine the impact of parental influence and its consequences on the development of gender identity in a fictional child protagonist named Claude as depicted in Laurie Frankel's literary work titled This Is How It Always Is. The present investigation involves the analysis of data obtained from the novel to examine the topics of family socialization influences and its consequences of societal exclusion and marginalization through the lens of a sociocultural perspective in psychology. The analytical frameworks employed in this study are the Cognitive-developmental theory developed by Martin et al. (2002), and the Gender schema theory proposed by Bem (1981). Additionally, the study examines Claude's social failure to fit.