Poster #188 - Children’s Self-Focused Essentialist Beliefs about Gender and Implications for Well-Being

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

How similar to a typical boy or girl do children perceive themselves to be? Does perceived similarity shape their well-being? Research on essentialism—the tendency to think of social categories as discrete, immutable and biologically based–shows that children essentialize gender (e.g.,Gelman & Taylor, 2000). By elementary school, children are aware of the characteristics of a typical boy and girl, view gender in discrete terms –they perceive differences between boys and girls –and use essentialism as a heuristic to stereotype others based on gender (e.g.,Halim & Ruble, 2010). Whether children apply essentialist beliefs about gender to themselves and the implications of those self-focused beliefs for their well-being remain understudied.

Indirect evidence shows that children not only view differences between boys and girls but that they also become gender-typed. In middle childhood, boys become more gender-typed, demonstrating greater interest in masculine activities and girls become less gender-typed, showing a decline in feminine but an increase in masculine activities (e.g.,Aubry et al., 2003). Studies also show that parental gender socialization shapes children’s understanding of gender (e.g.,Brown, 2017). However, little is known about how parental socialization about gender diversity – messages about the many ways boys and girls can embody and express their gender – can affect children’s self-focused essentialist beliefs about gender. Finally, research (e.g.,Egan & Perry, 2001) demonstrates that children who are gender typical fare better than those who are gender atypical. The extent to which the perceived gender typicality--well-being associations holds across various domains (e.g., activities vs. the way someone acts) is underexplored.

We focus on the discreteness aspect of essentialism and investigate the extent to which children perceive themselves as similar to and different from same-and other-gender peers, the role of parental socialization in those views and the link to psychosocial and physical health outcomes. We focused on middle childhood, a critical developmental period when gender becomes increasingly salient and consequential.

Urban ethnically diverse 2nd (n=37) and 4th/5th (n=109) boys (n=78) and girls (n=68) indicated their perceived similarity to boys and to girls in activities, the way they look, dress, and act. Students also reported on their loneliness and physical health. Parents indicated the frequency with which they have talked to their child about gender diversity as well as gender bias and equality.

As expected, children of all grades perceived more similarity to same- than other-gender peers across all domains (Figure 1). Additionally, boys perceived little similarity to girls but girls perceived similarity to boys, especially in the domain of activities. Next, we examined the role of parent socialization in essentialist beliefs – specifically, the difference in perceived similarity to same-and to other-gender. Analysis revealed that although parents socialize girls and older children more than boys and younger children, child’s gender played a stronger role in shaping self-focused essentialist beliefs than did parent socialization. Finally, self-focused essentialist beliefs about gender shaped outcomes. As children perceived more similarity to other- than same-gender, they reported more loneliness and physical health challenges across domains. Implications for the development of healthy gender identity in middle childhood are discussed.

Authors

• Negin Ghavami, LMU
  Presenting Author

• Sandra Graham, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Manpreet Dhillon Brar, UCLA
  Non-Presenting Author