Multidimensional and Intersectional Gender Identity and Sexual Attraction Patterns of Adolescents for Quantitative Research

Abstract

To identify and compare gender identity and sexual attraction (GISA) patterns using a latent class analysis (LCA), questionnaire data from a cross-sectional study on social resilience in adolescence was conducted in 2020, using a sample of 785 Swiss seventh grade high school students. Following McCall’s complex intersectionality approach, we applied an intracategorical and intersectional approach to reshape, differentiate, and critique the existing binary, heteronormative GISA categorization. To empirically validate the detected classes according to content, we measured the participants’ psychological characteristics with measures of self-esteem, social competence, symptoms of anxiety and depression, dissociation, social desirability, and emotional styles, and related these measures to the respective GISA patterns the LCA detected. The results of our multistep LCA endorsed that heteronormatively binary gender identities are far too simplistic to fully illustrate adolescents’ differences and similarities where gender is concerned. Out of the subsample of n = 785 adolescents (375 identified as “assigned females” and 410 “assigned males”), three significant subgroups of multidimensional GISA patterns emerged for both assigned females and males where differences within the identified GISA groups were larger than those between traditional “boys” and “girls” overall. The LCA demonstrated that the six classes with GISA indicators could be described as low GISA diverse (cis/heterosexual), intermediate GISA diverse (gender identity diverse and/or sexual diverse), high GISA diverse (gender diverse/sexual diverse) for both assigned males and females thus showing that GISA and the psychological state according to gender variance is greater within groups of assigned females and assigned males than between these groups.

The cycle of violence: effects of violence experience, behavior, and attitudes on adolescents’ peer rejection networks

“…As there are different forms of social rejection that affect boys and girls differently, it would be important for future research to examine the specific forms of rejection using an intersectional framework. Previous research has been shown that a binary assessment of gender does not provide sufficient insights into developmental trajectories and therefore into the cycle of violence (Kassis et al, 2021). Dissociation showed no effect, which is why Hypothesis 2 could not be confirmed in our results.…”

Thriving despite Parental Physical Abuse in Adolescence: A Two-Wave Latent Transition Analysis on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Violence-Resilience Outcome Indicators

“…Other international studies identifying SES and familial wealth as not being predictors of parental physical abuse [1,3,7] corroborate our results. We still have to take into consideration that testing gender as binary, as we did, still results in an enormous reduction of the existing gender variations and requires an intersectional approach [117].…”

Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms in Adolescents With and Without Experiences of Physical Parental Violence, a Latent Profile Analysis on Violence Resilience

“…Although the study, in comparison to other studies, took into account individual characteristics, recent studies exist that reveal how the categorization of sociodemographic variables in current research falls short. As Kassis et al (2021) have recently shown, thanks to person-centered gender identity and sexual attraction classes, psychosocial status can be mapped in a far more heterogeneous and detailed manner when multidimensional gender identity is considered rather than assigned sex. A more intersectional analysis of youths who have experienced violence would be another way for future research to fully explore the issue.…”