Gender-typed Behavior Research Articles

The Recalled Childhood Gender Identity/Gender Role Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties

This article reports on the psychometric properties of The Recalled Childhood Gender Identity/Gender Role Questionnaire, a 23-item questionnaire designed to measure recalled gender-typed behavior and relative closeness to mother and father during childhood. Five considerations guided its development: (1) scale items should show, on average, evidence for “normative” sex differences or be related to within-sex variation across target groups for which one might expect, on theoretical grounds, significant differences; (2) the items should be written in a manner such that they could be answered by both men and women; (3) the items should provide coverage of a range of gender-typed behaviors, including those that capture core aspects of the phenomenology of gender identity disorder in children; (4) the items should be abstract enough such that the description of the underlying construct would not be tied to a specific object or activity that might have been common during one period of time but not another, thus affording greater ecological validity across a large age range and birth cohorts; and (5) the questionnaire should be short enough that it would have practical utility in broader research projects and in clinical settings. A total of 1305 adolescents and adults (735 girls/women; 570 boys/men), with a mean age of 33.2 years (range=13–74), completed the questionnaire. Factor analysis identified a two-factor solution: Factor 1 consisted of 18 items that pertain to childhood gender role and gender identity, which accounted for 37.4% of the variance, and Factor 2 consisted of three items that pertain to parent–child relations (closeness to mother and father), which accounted for 7.8% of the variance. Tests of discriminant validity were generally successful in identifying significant between-group variation.

Preschoolers' Understanding of Simple and Complex Emotions: Links with Gender and Language

In this study we assessed individual differences among preschoolers' emotion understanding, verbal ability, and gender role behavior. Fifty-three children (M = 3 years, 5 months; 26 girls, 27 boys) participated in task that used puppets to assess their understanding of simple (happy, sad) and complex emotions (proud, embarrassed) and a standard vocabulary task. Parents completed a questionnaire on the frequency of their children's gender-typed behavior. Results indicated positive associations between children's total emotion understanding and both general verbal ability (particularly for boys) and parents' perceptions of stereotypic feminine behaviors. Gender analysis revealed that, independent of vocabulary ability, girls scored higher than boys on emotion labeling and understanding of complex emotions, especially the concept of pride. Results are discussed in relation to individual differences and effects of sociocultural context.

Gender Socialization in Latino/a Families: Results from Two Retrospective Studies

In this article, we present findings from 2 studies designed to explore gender-related socialization in Latino/a families. In Study 1, 22 adult Latinas (ages 20–45) completed in-depth interviews. In Study 2, 166 Latino/a college students (58% women; M age 21.4 years) completed self-report surveys. Study 1 findings suggest that many Latino/a parents socialize their daughters in ways that are marked by “traditional” gender-related expectations and messages. Results of Study 2, which included descriptive analyses and the creation of scales to explore family correlates of gender-related socialization, support and expand these findings. Male and female respondents described different experiences of household activities, socialization of gender-typed behavior, and freedom to pursue social activities or gain access to privileges. Parental characteristics, particularly gender role attitudes, were linked to gender-related socialization. Findings are discussed in light of the developmental and cultural literature on gender-related socialization.

Gender Role Self-Concept and Gender-Typed Communication Behavior in Mixed-Sex and Same-Sex Dyads

The focus of this study was the relation between both gender role self-concept and gender role attitudes with gender-related behavior of interacting partners. We observed gender-typed communication behaviors of mixed-sex and same-sex dyads and measured gender role self-concept and gender role attitudes. Thirty mixed-sex dyads, 19 women dyads, and 15 men dyads participated in a behavior observation study. The results revealed that the activation of gender role self-concept varies depending on the gender of the interacting people. Furthermore, we found that context and gender of the interacting persons moderated the relation between self-concept and behavior. Participants' gender role attitudes did not correlate with their own behaviors but did with their partners' behaviors.

Androgyny, Gender Role Behavior, and Emotional Intelligence Among College Students and Their Parents

Androgyny, gender role behavior, and emotional intelligence were measured in 576 students and their parents to examine the extent to which these variables exhibited generational effects or consistencies within families. Chi-square analyses indicated that sons were more androgynous in personality than their fathers, but that there was no significant difference in androgyny between daughters and mothers. The men also showed an increase in androgynous behavior across generations, whereas the women showed an increase in masculine gender-typed behavior and a decrease in feminine gender-typed behavior. ANOVA revealed that fathers scored significantly lower on emotional intelligence than mothers and students. Significant correlations on emotional intelligence for mothers and their respective students indicated a strong influence on this construct; no such relationship was found between students and fathers. The strongest correlations in masculine and feminine personality and behavior were obtained for mothers and daughters. It was also hypothesized that androgyny would predict higher emotional intelligence; multiple regression supported this hypothesis for students, mothers, and fathers.

Prenatal androgens and gender-typed behavior: a study of girls with mild and severe forms of congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

Gender-typed behaviors and interests were investigated in 26 girls, aged 2-10 years, affected with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and in 26 unaffected girls matched for age. Girls with CAH were more interested in masculine toys and less interested in feminine toys and were more likely to report having male playmates and to wish for masculine careers. Parents of girls with CAH rated their daughters' behaviors as more boylike than did parents of unaffected girls. A relation was found between disease severity and behavior indicating that more severely affected CAH girls were more interested in masculine toys and careers. No parental influence could be demonstrated on play behavior, nor did the comparison of parents' ratings of wished for behavior versus perceived behavior in their daughters indicate an effect of parental expectations. The results are interpreted as supporting a biological contribution to differences in play behavior between girls with and without CAH.

Sex and Sexuality in Men's Personal Advertisements

In this article, the author examines 2,400 men's personal advertisements from the Internet to explore gender role and sex role preferences in mate selection. Using content analysis, the author examines how men define their gender roles and sex roles, and how they express role preferences in their mate. The results show that when compared with gay men, straight men are less concerned about gender roles and sex roles. Gay men's personal advertisements are the real analytic lens here because they are the ones faced with the ambiguities that need to be negotiated, whereas straight men may have taken gender-typical roles for granted. The author also discusses how men knowingly or unknowingly express and reproduce cultural norms of heterosexuality and gender-typical behavior, and how they may perpetuate forms of heterosexism and sexism.

Differences in men's and women's GLOBAL, SEXUAL, and IDEAL-SEXUAL expressiveness and instrumentality

It has been argued that young men's and women's behavior in heterosexual sexual situations follows traditional, culturally defined gender role prescriptions, and alternatively, that expectations have shifted such that young men's and women's gender-relevant personality attributes are converging. Using the Bem Sex Role Inventory, primarily Caucasian men (n =94) and women (n =95) described their attributes globally (GLOBAL), and in a heterosexual sexual situation (SEXUAL). They also described the ideal attributes that a man and a woman should have in a heterosexual sexual situation (IDEAL-SEXUAL). The men's expressive scores were lowest for GLOBAL, intermediate for SEXUAL, and highest for IDEAL-SEXUAL. The women's expressive scores were higher for IDEAL-SEXUAL than for either GLOBAL or SEXUAL. Both the men's and the women's instrumental scores were lowest for SEXUAL, intermediate for IDEAL-SEXUAL and highest for GLOBAL. Both globally and in a sexual situation, men's instrumental scores were higher than women's, while women's expressive scores were higher than men's. These results suggest that men are more expressive in a sexual situations than they are globally because they perceive attributes reflecting expressiveness as ideal for a man in sexual situation. Women are less instrumental in sexual situations than they are globally, but may wish to be more instrumental than they are. Young women may lack the behavioral skills to enact their ideal, or may fear negative consequences for departing from gender-typed behavior in the sexual situation. There were no differences in expressiveness or instrumentality of the ideal man and the ideal woman in a sexual situation. It is concluded that, despite some convergence of attributes in sexual situations, traditional gender role prescriptions continue to guide young men's and women's behavior in sexual interactions, but not their conceptions of ideal behavior.

Gender and computers. II. The interactive effects of knowledge and constancy on gender-stereotyped attitudes

A number of studies have failed to find that gender constancy (understanding that one's gender is permanent) predicts gender-typed attitudes and behavior. This study (run with a predominantly white sample) tests the hypothesis that gender constant children are motivated to master gender roles, but that how well they do so depends on their knowledge of gender stereotypes. We predicted that attitudes toward computer use (a stereotypically male activity) would be less positive only for 5–9-year-old gender constant girls who also had rich gender stereotypes. Predictions were confirmed, especially for girls whose constancy had recently increased. These data thus suggest that the clearest picture of gender role development emerges when both the unique and interactive effects of gender constancy and gender schema development are assessed. They also indicate that gender differences in computer attitudes can develop through self-socialization processes.

Personality and lipid level differences associated with homosexual and bisexual identity in men.

Self-identified homosexual (n = 30), bisexual (n = 29), and heterosexual (n = 31) men were compared on measures of gender-typical behavior, sex role, ego strength, and lipid levels. Homosexual men differed significantly from the heterosexual men on the gender-typical behavior and feminine sex-role measure (both in adulthood and in childhood), and several trends and significant differences were found on the biochemical measures of lipid levels (especially when 7 obese men were removed from the analyses). As a rule, the bisexual men were different from the heterosexual men on the above measures, but were indistinguishable from the homosexual men. Bisexuals differed from both of the other two groups, however, by scoring lower on the ego strength scale and by reporting themselves to be more often troubled, lonely, and depressed. We caution that the lipid analyses were made on single blood samples and require an extended replication; however, we report the data because of their possible theoretical interest and because they replicate work of 20 years ago.

Clothing and Gender in America: Children's Fashions, 1890-1920

Previous articleNext article No AccessRevisions/ReportsClothing and Gender in America: Children's Fashions, 1890-1920Jo B. PaolettiJo B. Paoletti Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 13, Number 1Autumn, 1987Women and the Political Process in the United States Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/494390 Views: 134Total views on this site Citations: 20Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1987 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Silvia De Simone, Jessica Pileri Resistance to gender education: a case study of a kindergarten in Italy, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal 41, no.88 (Jun 2022): 1243–1261.https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-01-2021-0027Cihan Sarı, Albert Ali Salah, Alkım Almıla Akdag Salah Automatic detection and visualization of garment color in Western portrait paintings, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 34, no.Supplement_1Supplement_1 (Aug 2019): i156–i171.https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqz055Dominique Grisard Pink boys: colouring gender, gendering affect, NORMA 13, no.3-43-4 (Apr 2017): 227–249.https://doi.org/10.1080/18902138.2017.1312956Sui Ping Yeung, Wang Ivy Wong Gender Labels on Gender-Neutral Colors: Do they Affect Children’s Color Preferences and Play Performance?, Sex Roles 79, no.5-65-6 (Jan 2018): 260–272.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-017-0875-3Marco Del Giudice Pink, Blue, and Gender: An Update, Archives of Sexual Behavior 46, no.66 (Jun 2017): 1555–1563.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-1024-3Wang I. Wong, Melissa Hines Preferences for Pink and Blue: The Development of Color Preferences as a Distinct Gender-Typed Behavior in Toddlers, Archives of Sexual Behavior 44, no.55 (Feb 2015): 1243–1254.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0489-1Abdulrahman S. Al-Rasheed An experimental study of gender and cultural differences in hue preference, Frontiers in Psychology 6 (Jan 2015).https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00030Patrik Aspers, Frédéric Godart Sociology of Fashion: Order and Change, Annual Review of Sociology 39, no.11 (Jul 2013): 171–192.https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071811-145526Philip N. Cohen Children’s Gender and Parents’ Color Preferences, Archives of Sexual Behavior 42, no.33 (Mar 2012): 393–397.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-9951-5Marco Del Giudice The Twentieth Century Reversal of Pink-Blue Gender Coding: A Scientific Urban Legend?, Archives of Sexual Behavior 41, no.66 (Jul 2012): 1321–1323.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-0002-zAdi Adams “Josh Wears Pink Cleats”: Inclusive Masculinity on the Soccer Field, Journal of Homosexuality 58, no.55 (Apr 2011): 579–596.https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2011.563654Diane Naugler Wearing Pink as a Stand Against Bullying: Why We Need To Say More, Journal of Homosexuality 57, no.33 (Feb 2010): 347–363.https://doi.org/10.1080/00918360903542958Sandy W. Chiu, Shannon Gervan, Courtney Fairbrother, Laurel L. Johnson, Allison F. H. Owen-Anderson, Susan J. Bradley, Kenneth J. Zucker Sex-Dimorphic Color Preference in Children with Gender Identity Disorder: A Comparison to Clinical and Community Controls, Sex Roles 55, no.5-65-6 (Nov 2006): 385–395.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9089-9Kenneth J. Zucker Measurement of Psychosexual Differentiation, Archives of Sexual Behavior 34, no.44 (Aug 2005): 375–388.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-005-4336-7Kenneth J Zucker Intersexuality and Gender Identity Differentiation, Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology 15, no.11 (Feb 2002): 3–13.https://doi.org/10.1016/S1083-3188(01)00133-4Kathleen Huun, Susan B. Kaiser The Emergence of Modern Infantwear, 1896-1962: Traditional White Dresses Succumb to Fashion's Gender Obsession, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 19, no.33 (Jul 2016): 103–119.https://doi.org/10.1177/0887302X0101900302Linda B. Arthur Dress and the Social Construction of Gender in Two Sororities, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 17, no.22 (Jul 2016): 84–93.https://doi.org/10.1177/0887302X9901700203Sharron J. Lennon Clothing and Changing Sex Roles: Comparison of Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses, Home Economics Research Journal 18, no.33 (Jul 2009): 245–254.https://doi.org/10.1177/1077727X9001800306Leigh Eric Schmidt “A Church-going People are a Dress-loving People”: Clothes, Communication, and Religious Culture in Early America, Church History 58, no.11 (Jul 2009): 36–51.https://doi.org/10.2307/3167677JANET M. VOLPP, SHARRON J. LENNON PERCEIVED POLICE AUTHORITY AS A FUNCTION OF UNIFORM HAT AND SEX, Perceptual and Motor Skills 67, no.33 (Dec 1988): 815–824.https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1988.67.3.815