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

Abstract

Childhood gender variance (GV) and its association with psychological well-being have garnered increasing interest recently but little is known about children from the community and non-Western samples. Therefore, we examined GV and its associations with psychological well-being in a Chinese community sample where study of childhood GV is extremely rare. Parents of 461 Chinese children aged 4–12 years (243 birth-assigned males) provided information on GV using the Gender Identity Questionnaire for Children (GIQC) and on psychological well-being. Children assigned female at birth (girls) were more gender-variant than children assigned male at birth (boys). In boys, higher GV correlated with lower happiness, lower self-worth, more behavior problems, and poorer peer relations. In boys, controlling for demographic covariates and adding peer relations as an independent variable, poorer peer relations also independently associated with lower happiness, lower self-worth, and more problem behaviors, and GV still associated with lower happiness and self-worth. In girls, GV minimally associated with psychological well-being but poorer peer relations associated with lower happiness, lower self-worth, and more problem behaviors. Peer relations did not moderate any effect of GV on psychological well-being. The GIQC demonstrated potential as a measurement tool outside Western contexts. Chinese boys who exhibit GV appear to face similar psychological well-being challenges as their Western counterparts. However, factors that moderate the association between GV and psychological well-being have yet to be identified in this population.

Gender diversity in a Chinese community sample and its associations with autism traits

“…This study is part of a larger project examining GD in Chinese community children. Our previous study (Wong et al, 2023) reported results on the relationship between GD and psychological well-being (happiness, self-worth, behavior challenges, and peer relations), whereas the current study focused on the GD-autism trait co-occurrence. Ethics approval was obtained from the departmental research ethics committee.…”

“…These hypotheses may hold particular significance within the Chinese context. While research on GD among Chinese children is still emerging (Wong et al, 2023;Yu & Winter, 2011), existing studies indicate that both Western and Chinese children experiencing GD encounter psychosocial challenges, with potentially heightened implications for Chinese children. For example, children from Canada showed less bias against gender-diverse children than did Chinese children and may be more accepting of gender-diverse children (Kwan et al, 2020;Nabbijohn et al, 2020); on the other hand, traditional Chinese cultural values such as Confucianism T A B L E 1 Hierarchical regression models with AQ (full scale) and its associations with the GIQC as the dependent variable.…”

“…Studies have shown that gender-typed behaviors and expressions in China are comparable to those in Western cultures Yu & Winter, 2011). Additionally, gender-diverse individuals ranging from childhood to adult ages in China experience similar mental health challenges as those found in Western societies (Lin et al, 2021;Wong et al, 2023). While autism may sometimes be underdiagnosed in China, research suggests that autism prevalence rates in China are comparable to Western ones (Sun et al, 2019) and autism traits are distributed across the Chinese general population (Sun et al, 2018).…”

“…The first aim of the current study was to investigate whether autism traits were associated with GD beyond clinical populations. Novel aspects of this study include the investigation of this association in a Chinese community sample of children using the GIQC as a sensitive GD measure (Johnson et al, 2004;Wong et al, 2023). In addition, as previous research in Chinese children identified sex-specific factor structures for a well-validated autism measure (the Autism Spectrum Quotient-Children's Version [AQ-C]), overall scores and sex-specific versions (i.e., separate versions of the measure for birth-assigned girls and boys) (Sun et al, 2018) were used in the current study.…”

“…In addition, as previous research in Chinese children identified sex-specific factor structures for a well-validated autism measure (the Autism Spectrum Quotient-Children's Version [AQ-C]), overall scores and sex-specific versions (i.e., separate versions of the measure for birth-assigned girls and boys) (Sun et al, 2018) were used in the current study. As comprehensive Chinese measures for not only GD (Johnson et al, 2004;Wong et al, 2023) but also for autism traits (Sun et al, 2018) were used, the second aim of this study, in line with previous clinical (e.g., van der Miesen, de Vries, et al, 2018) and community studies (Nabbijohn et al, 2019), was to investigate whether specific subdomains and sex-specific factors of autism were particularly associated with GD.…”