Longitudinal Gender Presentation and Associated Outcomes Among Adopted Children with Lesbian, Gay, and Heterosexual Parents

• In Event: 1-209 - Rainbow Connections: Parent Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Child Development, and Family Dynamics

Integrative Statement

Gender presentation, or appearing in a way that fits social expectations of one’s gender role, represents one of the most obvious ways in which one’s gender identity becomes salient to others. This quality is especially relevant given the continued controversy surrounding children’s gender role development in sexual minority parent families. The current study was an examination of how gender presentation develops in adopted children with lesbian, gay, and heterosexual parents across two time points (Wave 1: N = 106 children, age: M = 36.07 months; Wave 2: N = 90, age: M = 8.34 years). Participants were recruited through contact with adoption agencies as a part of an ongoing longitudinal study into the development of children raised by lesbian and gay parents. Children’s gender presentation was observed and rated using a novel coding scheme, consisting of several variables focused on gender-typed clothing, including overall masculine and feminine presentation, the overall orderliness of children’s presentation, the presence of gender typed colors, the presence of gendered iconography, and sexualized elements present in the children’s outfit. A majority of these were rated on a five point scale, with larger numbers indicating a greater presence of the appearance element in question, with a few of the elements being direct counts of their appearance. An example of a “count” variable included the number of colors present in the child’s outfit. These presentational elements were compared with several measures of child outcomes, such as children’s peer relationships and parent’s attitudes toward gender typed behaviors. Children generally demonstrated a gender-conforming presentation in both waves (See Table 1) and there were limited differences by parental sexual orientation in any of the gender presentation or peer relationship variables (See Table 2). No associations were found between conformity in gender presentation and children’s gendered behaviors, nor between presentation and parent or child gender-typical attitudes reported by children and parents. Transgressive gender presentation was significantly correlated between early and middle childhood, indicating some stability of gender-nonconforming appearance among children across development. Transgressive gender presentation was also found to be negatively associated with children’s peer relationships such that gender-nonconforming girls, but not boys, reported lower quality friendships in both early and middle childhood. Based on these results we found that children’s relationships are significantly related to their gender presentation, even quite early on in childhood. The pattern applies most strongly to girls, given that boys in our sample did not tend to present in gender nonconforming ways at all. Parents’ gender role ideology does not appear to have a direct influence on children’s gender presentation at this age, which may mean that future efforts to encourage gender flexibility among youth should focus on their peer relationships over attempts to educate parents. These results provide information on the development of gender presentation over time and the ways in which it interacts with children’s social outcomes.

Authors

• Samuel T. Bruun, University of Kentucky
  Presenting Author

• Rachel H. Farr, University of Kentucky
  Non-Presenting Author