This study examined the relations between components of gender identity and psychosocial adjustment. The aspects of gender identity assessed were (a) feelings of psychological compatibility with one's gender (i.e., feeling one is a typical member of one's sex and feeling content with one's biological sex), (b) feelings of pressure from parents, peers, and self for conformity to gender stereotypes, and (c) the sentiment that one's own sex is superior to the other (intergroup bias). Adjustment was assessed in terms of self-esteem and peer acceptance. Participants were 182 children in Grades 4 through 8. Felt gender compatibility (when operationalized as either self-perceived gender typicality or feelings of contentment with one's biological sex) was positively related to adjustment, whereas felt pressure and intergroup bias were negatively associated with adjustment. The results provide new insights into the role of gender identity in children's well-being, help identify sources of confusion in previous work, and suggest directions for future inquiry.Gender is a quintessential element of human identity. Given that one's gender assignment ordinarily is immutable and that many fundamental features of life-including the recreational, academic, occupational, and relationship activities that one is expected to pursue-are governed by gender, it seems likely that most people devote at least some time to reflecting on questions like these: How well do I fit with my gender category? Must I adhere to the stereotypes for my sex or am I free to explore cross-sex options? Is my sex superior or inferior to the other? We believe that beginning in childhood, people do ask these questions of themselves and, moreover, that their answers influence their psychosocial adjustment. The present study was designed to test these propositions.In our view, people's answers to the questions noted above represent components of their gender identity. We view gender identity as a multidimensional construct encompassing an individual's (a) knowledge of membership in a gender category, (b) felt compatibility with his or her gender group (i.e., self-perceptions of gender typicality as well as feelings of contentment with one's

Two hypotheses were tested. The first was that low self-regard contributes over time to victimization by peers. The second was that behavioral vulnerabilities (e.g., physical weakness, manifest anxiety, poor social skills) are more likely to lead to victimization over time when children have low self-regard than when they are "self-protected" by healthy self-regard. Participants were 189 third-through 7th-grade boys and girls; data were collected in the fall and the spring of the school year. Both hypotheses were supported, especially when self-regard was assessed in terms of self-perceived peer social competence. In addition, the experience of being victimized led to diminished self-regard over time. Poor self-concept may play a central role in a vicious cycle that perpetuates and solidifies a child's status as a victim of peer abuse.

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This study examined whether social cognitions that have been assumed to influence aggression actually forecast change in aggressive habits over time. Participants were 189 3rd- through 7th-grade boys and girls; data on social cognitions and social behaviors were collected in the fall and spring of the school year. Aggression-encouraging cognitions assessed in the fall indeed promoted aggression over the school year, but such developments hinged critically on child sex and on initial (fall) levels of aggression and victimization. Results illustrate the principle that cognitions affect behavioral development mainly when the child's transactions with the social environment support the use of the cognitions as guides for behavior.

Many gay, lesbian, and bisexual adults report a period of childhood sexual questioning--an uneasy questioning of their heterosexuality brought on by same-sex attractions and motivating same-sex sexual exploration. This article evaluates hypotheses about the correlates, causes, and consequences of childhood sexual questioning. Participants were 182 children in the 4th through 8th grades. Compared with children more confident in their heterosexuality, sexual-questioning children reported more impaired self-concepts, fewer same-sex-typed attributes (but not more cross-sex-typed attributes), a greater sense of feeling different from same-sex others, and lesser satisfaction with their gender assignment. Short-term longitudinal analyses indicated that sexual questioning is more likely a determinant than a consequence of these correlated variables. However, influences of sexual questioning on these outcomes were small.