Gender Development

PSYU2235
2023
Kay Bussey
[Link]@[Link]
 Lecture Outline
1. Gender differences and similarities
2. Gender development:
– Gender-linked behaviour and preferences
– Gender identity
– Gender stereotypes

3. Theories of gender-role development

4. Social Influences on gendered conduct
5. Regulators of gendered conduct
6. Broader approaches to gender identity
 Gender Differences
• Biological differences: chromosomes,
hormones.
• Cognitive and Behavioural Differences:
Gender identity, gender roles, gender role
norms, gender typing, gender stereotypes.
“ …. sextyping is the process
whereby individuals come to
acquire the behaviours, attitudes,
interests, and emotional reactions,
that are culturally defined as
appropriate for members of their
sex.”
 Actual Gender Differences are
Small: Similarity Hypothesis
• Verbal abilities
• Spatial abilities
• Mathematical abilities
• Aggression
• Activity level
• Developmental vulnerability
• Empathy
 It’s Not Only The Means That Count

Females Males

Probability
of X

Ability X
 % NON-
% OVERLAP OVERLAP

d' = 0.20 is trivial 85 15

d' = 0.50 is moderate 67 33

d' = 0.80 is large 53 47

d' = 1.7 is huge 25 75

Cohen, J. (1969). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: Academic Press.
 Gender Differences in Mathematics
Performance

Females
Males
d' = 0.15

-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Standardized Scores

Source: Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E., & Lamon, S. J. (1990). Gender differences in mathematics performance: A
meta analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 139-155.
Stereotype Threat
 Stereotype Threat
• According to stereotype threat theory, negative stereotypes impair
performance and can lead to reduced motivation.
• Before completing a mathematics test 80 (54 female) participants
were informed either that men outperform women on the test
(stereotype threat condition) or that men and women perform
equally well (no-stereotype condition) – Fogliati & Bussey (2013).
• Women under stereotype threat performed worse and were less
motivated than non-stereotyped women to attend mathematics
tutorials after receiving negative feedback (see Figure 1).

• These results suggest that the effect of stereotype threat on

women’s mathematical performance is potentially compounded by
its capacity to reduce motivation to improve.
Fogliati, V. J., and Bussey, Kay (2013). Stereotype Threat Reduces Motivation to Improve: Effects of Stereotype Threat
and Feedback on Women’s Intentions to Improve Mathematical Ability, Psychology of Women Quarterly 37(3) 310-324
d' = 0.11
Adapted from Lightdale, J. R., & Prentice, D. A. (1994). Rethinking sex differences in aggression: Aggressive behavior
in the absence of social roles. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20(1), 34-44.
 Self-Nominated Physical Aggression
2.2
Mean Physical Aggression Score

1.8

Boy Aggressor
1.6
Girl Aggressor

1.4

1.2

1
Grade 5 Grade 7 Grade 9 Grade 5 Grade 7 Grade 9

Boy Recipient Girl Recipient

Gender of Recipient and Grade

Figure 1: Mean self-nominated physical aggression scores as a function of grade, gender of recipient and gender of
aggressor (1 = not at all to 6 = many times a week)
 Self-Nominated Relational Aggression
2.2
Mean Relational Aggression Score
2

1.8

Boy Aggressor
1.6
Girl Aggressor

1.4

1.2

1
Grade 5 Grade 7 Grade 9 Grade 5 Grade 7 Grade 9

Boy Recipient Girl Recipient

Gender of Recipient and Grade

Figure 2: Mean self-nominated relational aggression scores as a function of grade, gender of recipient and gender of
aggressor (1 = not at all to 6 = many times a week)
 Self-Nominated Cyber Aggression
2.2
Mean Cyber Aggression Score
2

1.8
Boy Aggressor
1.6
Girl Aggressor
1.4

1.2

1
Grade 5 Grade 7 Grade 9 Grade 5 Grade 7 Grade 9

Boy Recipient Girl Recipient

Gender of Recipient and Grade

Figure 3: Mean self-nominated cyber aggression scores as a function of grade, gender of recipient and gender of
aggressor (1 = not at all to 6 = many times a week)
 Gender Development

• Gender-linked behaviour and

preferences
• Gender identity
• Gender stereotypes
 Gender-linked Preferences

• Infants do not show any preferences for

toys and activities typically associated with
their gender.
• During the second year, gender
differences in stereotypical play
preferences emerge (Blakemore et al.,
2003).
 Gender-linked Preferences
• From about 18 months both boys and girls
look more at same- than other-gender-
stereotypical objects (Serbin et al., 2001).
• By about 2 years most girls prefer to play
with stereotypical female play objects (e.g.,
dolls, home maker toys) and most boys
prefer to play with stereotypical male objects
(e.g., cars, toy guns) (Servin, Bohlin, & Berlin,
1999).
 Gender-linked Preferences
• Children’s gender stereotypical activity
preferences tend to remain stable over the
early years (environmental and person
stability).
• Those children whose play and activity
preferences were more gender stereotypical
at 2½ years were also the most gender
stereotypical at 5 years of age (Golombok &
Rust, 2008; Karson, Kung, & Hines, 2017).
 Gender-linked Preferences

• Boys exhibit behaviour patterns consistent

with gender stereotypes at an earlier age
than do girls, even though their gender
stereotypic knowledge lags behind girls’
knowledge.
 Gender-linked Preferences

• As children age, these early gender

stereotypical activity preferences are
expanded to other domains including
academic pursuits, occupational choice,
and interactional patterns.
 Gender Identity

Gender identity typically refers to a

person’s gendered self-characterization.
Increasingly it is believed that it involves
self-categorization as male or female which
may or may not align with their biological
sex.
 Gender Identity
• Although gender identity develops over the life
span, most developmental research has focused
on the early years and children’s attainment of
gender identity knowledge although this
changing in view of accommodating transgender
identities.
• Kohlberg’s theory has been the major theory of
gender identity (see a later slide for more
details). However, it is increasingly apparent that
a broader theory is needed. This will be
examined towards the end of the lecture.
 Gender Stereotypes
• Gender stereotypes are beliefs about the
activities and preferences, emotions and
affect, and thought patterns that are
differentially associated with each gender.
• During the first year, infants show little
awareness of gender stereotypes, but
toward the end of the second year they
begin to show some knowledge of them.
 Gender Stereotypes

• Evidence of this stereotypic knowledge in

pre-verbal children has been obtained
using the preferential looking paradigm
to demonstrate infants’ association of
gender stereotypic objects with gender
categories.
 Gender Stereotypes

• Serbin, Poulin-Dubois, Colburne, Sen, &

Eichstedt (2001) investigated the
development of preferences for
stereotyped toys and knowledge of the
association of toys with gender categories
between 12 and 24 months, using the
preferential looking paradigm.
Serbin, L. A., Poulin-Dubois, D., Colburne, K. A., Sen, M. G., & Eichstedt, J. A. (2001). Gender
stereotyping in infancy: Visual preferences for and knowledge of gender-stereotyped toys in the
second year. International journal of behavioral development, 25(1), 7-15.
STUDY 1
• Participants: 12, 18, and 23 months.
• Procedure: In a series of trials, infants were
shown stereotyped male and female toys (vehicles
and dolls). Each pair of toys was preceded by either
a male or female face and voice to determine
whether the infant could visually match the toy with
the face by looking differentially at the toy that
corresponded to the preceding face. In the
interspersed control trials only the male- and female-
stereotyped toys were shown (see Figure 1 for the
stimuli used).
Results:
1. 12 months: children of both sexes showed a
visual preference for dolls over trucks - no
evidence of any awareness of gender stereotyping
of the toys.
2. 18 months: boys showed more visual interest in
the male sex-typed vehicles than girls did, and girls
looked longer at the dolls than boys did.
3. 23 months: as for the 18-month-old infants, these
infants also displayed gender-linked preferences,
i.e., boys looked longer at the vehicles than did the
girls and girls looked longer at the dolls than did the
boys - as for the younger two age groups there was
no evidence of "matching" either dolls or vehicles
with their respective gender category.
STUDY 2
• Concern that in Study 1 children may have been so
drawn to the toy because it was familiar to them (‘My
truck!’) that they did not match objects to people.
Therefore, in this study children saw two photos of
the same toy followed by a girl and boy face.
• Participants: 18- and 24-months.
• Procedure: During the trials a neutral voice said,
"See my car (doll)?" - two identical photos of the toys
were followed by the boy and girl faces and a neutral
voice saying "Look at me" and "Look at the people"
for the control trials (no voice prompt was used in the
first study for the control trial - it was used here to
equate attention to the photos).
Results
1. Girls looked significantly more at the faces
that "matched" the preceding toy standard
than at the "mismatching" faces or control
faces - no differences in boys looking times
across the conditions.
2. No preferences for either same- or other-sex
children's faces.
Conclusion
Gender-linked preferences are evident at
18 months - knowledge of gender-linked
preferences is more tentative - it occurs
for girls and not boys and is dependent on
the methodology used.
 Gender Stereotypes

• Gender stereotypic knowledge expands

over the preschool years so that by about
5 or 6 years most children have extensive
gender stereotypical knowledge of
children’s activities and interests
(Blakemore, Berenbaum, & Liben, 2009).
 Gender Stereotypes
• From about 5 years of age onwards
children begin to broaden their gender
stereotypic knowledge, from concrete
gender differences relating to activities
and physical appearance to more abstract
differences between the genders and to
personality traits (Heyman & Legare, 2004).
Heyman, G. D., & Legare, C. H. (2004). Children's beliefs about gender differences in the
academic and social domains. Sex Roles, 50, 227-239.
 Gender Stereotypes
• Apart from extending their gender
stereotypic knowledge as they age,
children also become more flexible in
their gender stereotypic conceptions. They
begin to realize that there is variation in
the gender stereotypicality of activities
and there is variation in people’s
adherence to gender stereotypes (Conry-
Murray & Turiel, 2012).
Conry Murray, C., & Turiel, E. (2012). Jimmy’s baby doll and Jenny’s truck: Young
children’s reasoning about gender norms. Child Development, 83(1), 146-158.
 Gender Stereotypes
The gender stereotypicality of different
classes of activities can vary not only within
activities, but also across cultures, historical
time, individuals, and age.
For example, early last century pink was associated with
boys as it was considered a strong color and blue was
associated with girls as it was considered delicate and
dainty. Over the course of the twentieth century, the gender
stereotyping of the colors changed to pink for girls and
blue for boys (Paoletti, 1997).
 Gender Stereotypes
• There are also age, gender, and cultural
differences in beliefs about adherence to
gender stereotypes.
• Children are typically most rigid about
conforming to gender stereotypical beliefs
at about the time they begin school. Over
the middle childhood years, they generally
become more flexible before returning to
greater rigidity during adolescence.
 Gender Stereotypes

Girls tend to hold more flexible gender

stereotype beliefs than do boys, beginning in
middle childhood (Blakemore et al., 2009).
 Gender Stereotypes

There is also evidence that there is more

flexibility in gender stereotypic beliefs in
some cultures than in others (e.g., girls
prohibited from attaining an education in
some cultures).
 Gender Stereotypes

It is not surprising that knowledge of gender

stereotypes by themselves do not usually
directly relate to engagement in gender
stereotypical conduct. Most adults have
attained a comprehensive knowledge of
gender stereotypes, so this knowledge
alone does not predict the variability in
gendered conduct.
 Gender Stereotypes
One of the major factors associated with
behavioural compliance with gender
stereotypic knowledge is the expectations
associated with gender non-conformity
(Blakemore, 2003). Gender violations are often
strongly sanctioned, and the more this
happens, the more children anticipate
negative outcomes for non-stereotypical
conduct (Raag, 1999; Zouls et al., 2011).
 Gender Stereotypes

In addition to the influence of social outcome

expectations on gendered conduct, from a
social cognitive theory perspective (Bussey
& Bandura, 1999), the extent to which
knowledge of stereotypes influences
conduct also depends on individuals’ self-
evaluative appraisals of their conduct.
Three major regulators: others evaluation,
self-evaluation, and self-efficacy.
 Gender Stereotypes

• Some children develop gendered

standards in which they abhor conduct
that deviates from gender-stereotypes and
react with self-censure when they behave
in ways that violate their gender
standards.
 Gender Stereotypes

Other children develop more egalitarian

standards of conduct and do not anticipate
such negative self-sanctions for gender non-
conformity, and may even anticipate pride
for behaving in accord with egalitarian
standards (Zeldin & Pajares, 2000).
 Countering Gender Stereotypes
• Song-Nichols and Young (2020) used depictions
of gender-counter-stereotypic robots (e.g., a
female construction worker robot) and gender-
stereotypic robots (e.g., a female secretary
robot) as sources of information about cultural
gender stereotypes.
• Forty-five 6- to 8-year-old children participated in
a short counter-stereotyping task.
Song-Nichols, K., & Young, A. (2020). Gendered Robots Can Change Children's Gender
Stereotyping. In CogSci
 Countering Gender Stereotypes
• Children in the counter-stereotypical
condition viewed videos of cartoon
female gendered robots with culturally
stereotyped masculine occupations,
interests in activities, and traits.
• Children in the stereotypical condition
viewed videos of cartoon female gendered
robots with culturally stereotyped feminine
attributes.
 Countering Gender Stereotypes

• From pretest to posttest, children’s gender

stereotyping decreased in the counter-
stereotypical condition and increased in
the stereotypical condition.
• These finding suggest children may learn
from robots as models of cultural gender
stereotypes.
Theories of Gender-Role Development

• Biological Theory
• Psychoanalytic Theory
• Cognitive Developmental Theory
• Gender Schema Theory
• Social Cognitive Theory
 Biological Theories
• Chromosomes
• Hormones
• There is surprising similarity in the make-
up of boys and girls. Biological sex is not
always dimorphic.
• Males and females are differentiated
genetically at conception (XX = female
and XY = male).
 Biological Theories
• Because of the multiple stages of gender
differentiation that occurs throughout
gestation, infants can vary in the extent to
which their biological make up is more
typical of one gender than the other.
– For example, it is possible for an infant to be genetically male but
have the genitalia characteristic of a female (complete androgen
insensitivity syndrome (CAIS)) and similarly it is possible for an
infant to be genetically a female and have the genitalia of a male
(congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH)).
 Biological Theories

Research has shown that hormones can

affect the infant’s developing genitalia. The
evidence for the effects of hormones on
psychological development is less strong
and more difficult to obtain than it is for
genital gender differences.
 Biological Theories

One of the reasons for this difficulty is that

gender differences in many areas of human
functioning are small and have been
declining. It is also impossible to
experimentally manipulate the various
biological markers that differentiate the two
genders to establish their causal effects on
human performance.
 Biological Theories

Consequently, most research in this area

relies on children who have impaired
hormonal development either from normal
variability or resulting from some form of
misadventure.
 Psychoanalytic Theory

• Identification with same-sex parent

• Oedipus complex (boys)

• Electra complex (girls)

 Cognitive Developmental Theory
Kohlberg (1966)
Gender Constancy is comprised of three
components:
1. Gender identity: “are you a boy or a girl?”
2. Gender stability: “when you grow up, will you
be a mummy or a daddy?”
3. Gender consistency: “if you played with
dolls/trucks, what would you be?”
 Cognitive Developmental Theory
Kohlberg (1966, 1969) used the term
gender constancy to refer to the concept
that a person’s sex is a permanent attribute
that is tied to underlying biological properties
(i.e., the person’s genitals and genetic constitution) and
does not depend on surface characteristics
such as the person’s hair length, style of
clothing, choice of play activities, and so on.
 Kohlberg’s Classic Approach

“I am a boy, therefore I want to do boy things, therefore

the opportunity to do boy things (and to gain approval for
doing them) is rewarding”.

In this view if a child who is categorized as a

girl at birth and says they are a boy, their
response is regarded as wrong (not
consistent with more recent research by
Olson and colleagues, 2018).
Fast, A. A., & Olson, K. R. (2018). Gender development in transgender preschool children. Child
development, 89(2), 620-637
 Gender Schema Theory
• Bem (1981) – androgyny

• Flawed methodology, but did show the

mental health benefits of androgyny
• Recent research has begun to examine
gender typicality and mental health
outcomes (Perry, Paletti, & Cooper, 2019).
Perry, D. G., Pauletti, R. E., & Cooper, P. J. (2019). Gender identity in childhood: A
review of the literature. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 43(4), 289-304
 Femininity
High Low

Masculine
High Androgynous
sex-typed

Masculinity
Feminine
Low Undifferentiated
sex-typed

Categories of gender-role orientation based on viewing masculinity and

femininity as separate dimensions of personality
 Social Cognitive Theory

Bussey and Bandura (1999) – social

cognitive theory – examines the social
influences on children’s gender cognitions
and behavior.
Bussey, K., & Bandura, A. (1999). Social cognitive theory of gender development and
differentiation. Psychological review, 106(4), 676
Sociocognitive Modes of Influence

Three major modes of social

influence:

1. Modeling

2. Enactive experience

3. Direct tuition
Regulators of gender conduct
 Gendered Social Influences
The main gendered social influences are:
– Parents

– Peers

– Media

Differential Treatment by Parents, Peers, and the

Media for Gendered Conduct
 Gendered Social Influences
• Parents “see” sons and daughters
differently: boys are seen as bigger and more
active than girls who are seen as weaker and
more passive than boys - despite no objective
differences between male and female infants.

• Parents respond differently to same the

infant’s emotional response depending on
whether they believe the infant is a boy or
girl – fear or anger.
 Gendered Social Influences

• Parents provide different environments

for their sons than for their daughters:
rooms are often furnished on the basis of
the infant’s gender; toys are provided on
the basis of their infant’s gender.
 Gendered Social Influences
Parents
– Converse differentially with boys than with
girls. They talk more about science and
technical issues with their sons, and engage
in more emotional discussion with their
daughters (Leaper, 2002).
– Fredricks and Eccles (2002) showed that
parents’ stereotypical gender expectations
impacted their sons’ and daughters’
performance and self-beliefs in their math and
sport competence.
 Gendered Social Influences

Parents
– Not all parents raise their children to conform
to gender-role stereotypes.
– When parents adopt more gender-egalitarian
practices with their children, daughters
perform better academically than daughters of
gender-traditional parents (Bussey, 2013).
 Gendered Social Influences

Parents
Girls who selected STEM subjects at school
and went on to occupations in these fields
reported that their mothers’ modeling of
technological related activities was pivotal in
their developing an interest in these fields and
believing that they could successfully perform in
them (Zeldin & Pajares, 2000).
 Gendered Social Influences
Parents
• Aidy et al. (2021) examined whether
adolescent daughters' and their parents'
gender stereotypes about math and liberal
arts would predict the academic orientation of
daughters at a critical time of career related
decision-making.
Aidy, C. L., Steele, J. R., Williams, A., Lipman, C., Wong, O., & Mastragostino, E. (2021). Examining adolescent
daughters' and their parents’ academic-gender stereotypes: Predicting academic attitudes, ability, and STEM
intentions. Journal of Adolescence, 93, 90-104.
 Gendered Social Influences
Parents
• Girls' academic attitudes, academic ability,
and intentions to pursue a degree in STEM,
were predicted by daughters' own implicit and
explicit stereotypes, not that of their parents.
• These findings suggest the importance of
challenging academic-gender stereotypes
during adolescence that could arise from
multiple sources.
 Gendered Social Influences
Peers
As children age, peers assume an increasingly
important role in influencing their gender
development. Peers use the same means of
influence as those used by parents. Typically,
they guide children’s activities in gender
stereotypical directions, praise them for gender
stereotypical conformity, censure them for gender
stereotypical non-conformity, and model gender
stereotypical patterns of behaviour (Bussey &
Bandura, 1999, 2004).
 Gendered Social Influences
Peers
Young children are more direct than older children in
their sanctioning of peers who violate gender norms,
whereas older children and adolescents tend to use
more indirect methods of sanctioning gender non-
conforming peers. Sanctions including ridicule,
harassment, and exclusion are used to influence peers’
gender conformity (Bockting, 2014; Neilsen-Hewett &
Bussey, 2017 Young & Sweeting, 2004). In fact, gender
atypical adolescents are more frequently cyberbullied
than gender typical adolescents (Jackson & Bussey,
2020).
Jackson, E. F., & Bussey, K. (2020). Under pressure: Differentiating adolescents’
expectations regarding stereotypic masculine and feminine behavior. Sex
 Gendered Social Influences
• Boys receive stronger negative
sanctions from the peer group for gender
non-conforming behaviour than do girls
(Braun & Davidson, 2017; Kornienko et al., 2016)
argue that this is
• Halim, Ruble, and Amodio (2011)
possibly due to the higher valuation of
male than female traits and comes into
play around school age after the
dominance of “Pink Frilly Dresses”.
 Gendered Social Influences
Peers
Boys who were victimized by peers reduced
their female stereotypical behavior over the
course of a school year (Ewing Lee & Troop-
Gordon, 2011) and children who anticipated
receiving negative sanctions for their gender
nonconformity showed lower levels of
adjustment than those children not anticipating
such censure (Carver, Yunger, & Perry, 2003).
 Gendered Social Influences

Peers
• A Serbian study (Skočajić et al., 2020)
involving 100 children aged 3–4 or 6–7
years-old, balanced by gender, further
replicated the finding that gender
stereotypes were stronger in boys that in
girls.
 Gendered Social Influences

Peers
The influence of peers on gender development
is further enhanced by children’s social
interactions with same gender peers. Gender
segregation begins in the early years and
increases during middle childhood (Bussey,
2013).
 Gendered Social Influences

Peers
There is debate about why this occurs. One of
the most widely proffered explanations is based
on the similarity of behavioural interactions
among children of the same gender, especially
the higher activity level and rough and tumble
play enacted by boys’ compared with girls’
groups (Maccoby, 1998; Mehta & Strough, 2009).
 Gendered Social Influences
Peers
Not all peers are united in their intolerance of
gender nonconformity. It is increasingly
apparent that within peer groups there are
variations in the beliefs and attitudes of peer
group members. For example, girls who
develop interests in stereotypical male domains
such as math and science establish groups with
other girls who have the same interests (Zeldin
& Pajares, 2000).
 Gendered Social Influences
Peers
It is noteworthy that girls who develop interests
in these stereotypical male achievement
domains do not join boys’ groups which may be
expected if behavioral similarity was the only
factor guiding their selection of peers. Girls
who do not conform to gender roles may
expect as much censure from gender
conforming boys as they do from girls.
 Gendered Social Influences
Peers
Hence, those who challenge gender roles
may be as selective in their choice of same
gender peers as they are in their avoidance of
other gender peers. This may be one of the
reasons why gender segregated schools have
not shown achievement advantages for girls
(Halpern et al., 2011).
 Gendered Social Influences

Media Influences
The media plays an influential role in gender
development. For centuries, the print media
has presented gender stereotypical content and
from the 1950’s, television has played an
increasing role in presenting such content. In
the present century music videos, computer
games, the internet, and many other forms
of social media all serve to affirm gender
stereotypes.
 Gendered Social Influences

Media Influences
Boys spend more time than girls playing video
games and watching programs that feature
sports, cartoons, and action-adventures. Girls
spend more time watching comedy programs
and those that focus on interpersonal
relationships (Coyne et al., 2016).
 Gendered Social Influences
Social Media Influences:
• The role of social media in the development of body
image concerns has been supported by meta-analyses
(Huang et al., 2020; Mingoia et al., 2017; Saiphoo &
Vahedi, 2019) - particularly physical appearance using
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram among other
platforms.

• Females desire thinness and males strive for

muscularity.
 Gendered Social Influences
Marketing
Shewmaker and Hains (2021) investigated: How do LEGO’s
marketing themes convey messages regarding gender?
• The LEGO Shop website featured 1,524 items for sale,
categorized into 21 categories, including “Apparel &
Accessories,” “Books,” “Home and Office,” “Seasonal,”
“Vehicles,” “Video Games”—and “Girls.”
• There was no category for “Boys”. Of the 1,524 items for sale,
142 (9.31%) were tagged “Girls.” These were:
Bricks & More (2 of 7 items, 28.6%), DC Comics Super Heroes (1 of 46
items, 2.2%), Disney Princess (10 of 10 items, 100%), DUPLO (21 of 80
items, 26.3%)
 Regulators of Gendered Conduct

• Gender-linked social expectations

• Gender-linked self-expectations
• Perceived self-efficacy: four sources
(mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social
persuasion and encouragement, and mood states)
 Gendered Social Expectations

• Jackson and Bussey (2020) showed that

young men (12-17 years) reported higher felt
pressure (social expectations) to conform to
same gender behaviour than did young
women, and young women reported felt
pressure to conform to other gender
behaviour whereas young men reported
pressure to avoid other gender behaviour.
 Sources of Felt Pressure

Jackson, Bussey, and Myers (2021) assessed felt

pressure regarding masculine and feminine
stereotypic behaviours and compared pressure
from parents, peers, and the self and how these
sources are associated with self-perceived gender
typicality. Participants (N = 275; 53.09% female;
grade 7 M = 12.35 years; grade 9 M = 14.3 years;
71% Anglo-Celtic).
 Sources of Felt Pressure
• Male adolescents reported highest felt pressure
to strive for gender conforming behaviour from
parents and the self and pressure to avoid
gender nonconforming behaviour was greatest
from peers.
• Female adolescents reported felt pressure to
strive for gender nonconforming behaviours
and this pressure was the strongest from the self
(See Figure 1).
Jackson, Bussey, and Myers (2021). Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50:613–627
 Developing Gender Identity
• Although most children develop knowledge of their
gender and that of others over the first years, the
influence of their gender identity on their gendered
conduct varies across the life course and in different
contexts depending on the regulators influencing their
behaviour as is apparent from the preceding slides.
• This view departs from that of Kohlberg who claimed that
once children achieve gender constancy they are
motivated to behave in ways that are gender consistent
with their identity.
 Gender Identity
• As children age, they become aware of the
increasing social identities they can
assume. In some circumstances, and for
some children and adults, gender identity
will gain prominence and for others, ethnic
or a combination of these two social
identities or other identities will
predominate.
 Gender Identity

• Increasing awareness of the limitations of

the binary approach to gender
development as more children identify as
transgender and the fluidity of gendered
behaviour is observed. Gender diverse
identities include transgender and
nonbinary identities.
 New Views on Gender Identity
• Binary views of gender identity have
been challenged by a broader view of
identity including transgender identities
and fluid identities (Gulgoz et al., 2019)
• Three- to 5-year-old socially transitioned
transgender children (e.g., boy wearing
girl’s clothes) did not differ from controls
(cisgender) or siblings of transgender and
gender nonconforming children on gender
preference, behaviour, and belief
measures (Fast & Olson, 2018).
 New Views on Gender Identity

• However, transgender children were

less likely than both control groups to
believe that their gender at birth
matches their current gender.
• Both transgender children and siblings
were less likely than controls to believe
that other people’s gender is stable.
 New Views on Gendered Behaviour
• Gender roles are more flexible
• However, gender stereotypes remain alive and
well
• Gender dictates important aspects of the life
course
• Pervasiveness of gender influences, but not all
people adopt gender roles to the same extent
and sex categorization and gender identity and
sex are not always the same for all people
 Gender Development
• [Link]
MXJJ0