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Many children display traits, interests, or behaviors not stereotypically associated with their sex. Little is known about the factors influencing how parents respond to their children engaging in gender-nonconforming behaviors, yet the way parents respond to such behaviors may be critical to supporting children's development-particularly among children who frequently display gender-nonconforming traits and behaviors. This study examined parent and child characteristics that relate to how parents respond, or would respond, to gender-nonconforming behaviors. A community sample of parents (N ϭ 236) completed an online survey that assessed how frequently their child engaged in gender-nonconforming behaviors, their own gender-atypical traits, attitudes toward gender, parenting style, and their discomfort with and attempts to change their child's gender-nonconforming behaviors. Parents reported greater discomfort with gender nonconformity when their child was male and less gender nonconforming and when they held more traditional gender role attitudes. After controlling for discomfort, parents reported more frequent efforts to change gender-nonconforming behaviors when their child was male, when they held more traditional attitudes toward gender roles, and if they had a warmer parenting style. Notably, boys' gender nonconformity was negatively associated with parent efforts to change behaviors. These data explicate the parent-child contexts associated with parents' being uncomfortable with their child engaging in gender-nonconforming behaviors and intervening to change those behaviors to fit in with societal expectations for gender. Results from this study could inform intervention efforts to increase parental support for gender-nonconforming youths. Public Significance StatementIt is common for youths to occasionally display interests or behaviors that are not typically associated with their sex assigned at birth, yet some parents are uncomfortable with diverse gender expressions. This study identifies individual characteristics of parents who feel uncomfortable with their child's engaging in gender-nonconforming behaviors, and of those who may discourage their child's gender nonconformity. Results from this study could be used to identify parents that may benefit from gender-affirmative intervention or education programs.

Introduction: Adolescents are heterogeneous in how they deine and experience their sexual orientation, which can include speciic identity labels, romantic attractions, and other-and/or same-sex sexual behavior. These three components of sexual orientation are not always concordant, and studies suggest adolescents-particularly girls-are luid in these dimensions of orientation over time. The current study examined: 1) luidity in adolescent girls' and boys' selflabeled identities and romantic attractions over time, and 2) patterns of adolescent girls' and boys' self-labeled identities and romantic attractions as they coincide with sexual behavior.Methods: Surveys were administered to adolescents in three low-income high schools in the rural Southeastern U.S. at three yearly intervals (n = 744; M age = 15.0; 54.3% girls; 48% White, 24% Hispanic/Latinx, 21% Black/African American). Participants reported their self-labeled sexual identity and romantic attraction at each time point and their lifetime sexual behavior with girls and boys at year 3.Results: Results revealed 26% of girls and 11% of boys reported luidity in identity and 31% of girls and 10% of boys reported luidity in attractions. At each time point, up to 20% of girls and 6% of boys reported a sexual minority identity label with concurrent same-sex attraction; the majority of these participants also reported same-sex behavior. Among heterosexual-identiied participants reporting some degree of same-sex attraction at year 3, approximately 66% of girls and 10% of boys reported same-sex behavior. Conclusions:The indings suggest that many adolescents are nuanced and dynamic in how they identify and experience their developing sexualities.Adolescents are heterogeneous in how they deine and experience their sexual orientation, which can include speciic identity labels, romantic and sexual attractions, and other-and/or same-sex sexual behavior (