Childhood gender‐typed behavior and emotional or peer problems: a prospective birth‐cohort study

Abstract

Background Retrospective and cross‐sectional studies often report associations between childhood gender nonconformity and greater emotional and peer difficulties. This study used the ALSPAC birth cohort to investigate relationships between childhood gender‐typed behavior and peer and emotional problems throughout childhood and adolescence. Methods A total of 11,192 participants had at least one measure of parent‐rated gender‐typed behavior in infancy; 7,049 participants had a measure of child‐rated gender‐typed behavior at 8.5 years. Separate linear mixed regression models were fitted to assess whether parent‐rated and child‐rated gender‐typed behaviors were associated with emotional and peer problems across childhood and adolescence (6–16 years old). The effect of adding covariates (self‐esteem, abuse, bullying, feeling accepted by peers, and feeling different) on these relationships was assessed. Results For boys, more gender‐nonconforming behavior was associated with greater subsequent emotional and peer problems in childhood and adolescence. Adjusting for self‐esteem, relational bullying victimization, feeling different, or feeling accepted by peers reduced some of these associations. In contrast, for girls, more gender‐nonconforming behavior was associated with fewer emotional problems in childhood and adolescence. In girls, self‐reported gender‐nonconforming behavior was also associated with fewer parent‐rated peer problems but parent‐rated gender‐nonconforming behavior was associated with more parent‐rated peer problems; this latter association was partly explained by self‐esteem, bullying, and abuse victimization. These associations were statistically significant but small. Conclusions Overall, more female‐typical behaviors were generally associated with greater subsequent emotional and peer problems, for both boys and girls. Future studies should investigate factors that reduced these associations, as well as potential negative effects of female‐typical behaviors or advantages of male‐typical ones. As this was a 14‐year longitudinal study, the relationships between gender‐role behaviors and emotional/peer problems warrant further research despite the small association sizes.

Influence of Personality Traits and Its Interaction with the Phenomenon of Bullying: Multi-Centre Descriptive Study

“…The latter perceived abuse as "rarely" occurring, while females perceived it as "never" occurring (OR = 0.260). There is little literature on the subject, but this difference between sexes may be due to the fact that males and females have a different understanding of the violence model [57], though such understanding is currently changing. Moreover, some authors state that aggressiveness is stronger in males and abuse is more frequent in a male environment, which makes them detect it more frequently, so rejection, margination, and exclusion are less detected and more restricted to the female environment [58].…”

Gender variance and psychological well-being in Chinese community children.

“…These differences suggest large cross-cultural resemblances with some temporal and cultural variations in prevalence and levels of GV. Gender-variant children are at risk of a wide range of challenges to psychological well-being, in both clinical and community samples (Egan & Perry, 2001;Steensma et al, 2014;van Beijsterveldt et al, 2006;van der Miesen et al, 2018;Wallien et al, 2010;Warren et al, 2019;Yunger et al, 2004). Studying GV in community samples provides an estimate of psychological well-being that is less confounded by the distress associated with receiving a clinical diagnosis (MacMullin et al, 2021).…”

“…For example, community children and adolescents who display elevated GV showed decreased psychological well-being, including internalizing and externalizing problems (van Beijsterveldt et al, 2006; van der Miesen et al, 2018; Yunger et al, 2004), poorer peer relations (Egan & Perry, 2001; Yunger et al, 2004), and lower self-worth (Egan & Perry, 2001; Yunger et al, 2004). Studies that reported assigned sex differences in how GV or GD correlated with psychological well-being usually found boys to be more affected, for instance in terms of emotional and peer challenges (Steensma et al, 2014; Wallien et al, 2010; Warren et al, 2019). As much of the research focused on mental and social challenges, less is known about general life satisfaction or happiness in children who display GV or GD.…”

Role of a Dentist in the Diagnosis of Child Abuse and Neglect: A Literature and Narrative Review

“…On the other hand, Chapman et al [36] documented the prevalence of psychological and depressive disorders in children exposed to abuse. A number of studies [12,32] coincide that the most important element in the detection of these clinical manifestations is to take into account the aforementioned characteristics, together with discrepancies between the clinical data and the story told; suspicious behavior on the part of the parents; the behavior of the child with emotional problems [34,35]; and the presence of bilateral injuries in different stages of healing or with a specific pattern indicative of abuse [22]. Victims of CA are scantly cooperative in the dental clinic [20], and are at an increased risk of suffering emotional and psychological disorders [33,35] in both childhood and adult life.…”