Gender Identity and Children’s School Liking: The Moderating Role of Parental Acceptance.

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Sex, Gender

Abstract

Gender typicality has been linked with academic outcomes for adolescents (Vantieghem et al., 2014). In previous studies, gender typicality was conceptualized as how similar youth feel to members of their own gender group. Taking a dual identity approach (i.e., assessing perceived similarity to both own- and other-gender peers) (Martin et al., 2017) could deepen our understanding of how children experience school and relationships at school, but this issue has not been investigated. We sought to fill this gap. We hypothesized that children’s perceived similarity to own-gender peers would be positively related to school liking, whereas other-gender similarity would be negatively related (H1). Further, the relation between similarity and school liking might vary depending on parents’ attitudes because supportive parenting is associated with children’s adjustment (Amato & Fowler, 2002). We hypothesized that the positive relation between own-gender similarity and school liking would be stronger when parents held traditional views (e.g., low acceptance of atypicality) because parents would be supportive of children high in own-gender similarity but there would be a lack of support for children who perceive themselves to be low on own-gender similarity. When parents are less traditional (e.g., acceptance of atypicality), the relation might weaken as they would be supportive of children with low own-gender similarity (H2a). Similarly, the negative relation between other-gender similarity and school liking might be weaker when parents are less traditional (H2b).

Participants were 206 second graders (50.5% female, Mage = 7.15 years, SD = .51) from eight schools in the Southwestern US. Data were collected at two time points, one year apart (T1 & T2). At both time points, students rated their school liking (Ladd et al., 2000) as well as their gender similarity (i.e., how much they felt, acted, and looked like their own- and other-gender peers; Martin et al., 2017). At T1, parents reported their acceptance of gender atypical behaviors in children the same gender as their own child.

Multiple regression analyses accounting for T1 school liking indicated that children’s similarity to own- and other-gender peers were not related to school liking either concurrently or longitudinally (H1 not supported; Table 1). However, a significant concurrent interaction effect emerged: The relation between T2 own-gender similarity and school liking (controlling for T1 school liking) varied by parent acceptance of child gender atypicality (see Figure 1). While H2b was not supported, we found partial support for H2a: For children whose parents reported low acceptance of atypicality (e.g., more traditional parents), there was a significant positive relation between own-gender similarity and school liking. This relation was not significant for children whose parents rated high or mean acceptance.

Neither own- nor other-gender similarity was related to children’s school liking in contrast to previous studies with adolescents. The negative relation between gender atypicality and academic outcomes may be unique to adolescents or may depend on other factors. Indeed, we found that children’s own-gender similarity (an indicator of gender typicality) was only positively related to school liking for children whose parents were less traditional. Potential implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Renee Benoit, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Aubrey Hoffer, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephan Scrofani, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sonya Xinyue Xiao, Northern Arizona Univeristy
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carol Lynn Martin, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author