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Two components of gender identity are gender similarity, how one’s self-concept relates to the major gender collectives (i.e., female, male), and felt pressure to conform to gender norms. The development of these components across ages and contexts has been understudied. The focus of this study was to examine variations in gender similarity and felt pressure across multiple intersecting contexts: developmental stage, gender, and ethnic-racial group. Six data sets were harmonized and means were compared across 2628 participants. Results revealed nuanced patterns: Gender intensification was supported in early adolescence, primarily for boys. Young adult men reported lower levels of pressure and gender typicality than younger boys, but young adult women’s levels were generally not different than younger girls. Surprisingly, young adult women’s levels of own-gender similarity and pressure from parents were higher than adolescent girls. Expectations of gender differences in gender typicality and felt pressure were supported for all ages except young adults, with higher levels for boys. Finally, there were more similarities than differences across ethnic-racial groups, though when there were differences, minoritized participants reported heightened gender typicality and pressure (largely accounted for by higher scores for Black and Latinx participants and lower scores for White and Multiracial participants). These results add to what is understood about contextually dependent gender development.
Previous research suggested that gender typicality and pressure to conform to gender norms were unrelated; however, this may have been due to how gender typicality was assessed (i.e., by only comparing the self to one’s own gender collective). In the present study, we used a dual identity approach (comparing oneself to both gender collectives: to own-gender and other-gender individuals) to create typologies of gender typicality to examine how similarity to own and other gender collectives might differentially associate with pressure to conform to gender norms. The potentially unique influence of pressure sources (parents, peers, or the self) was also analyzed. Participants were 378 U.S. 6th grade students (48% female; Mage = 11.44 years, range = 10–13). Results indicated that male early adolescents felt more pressure than did female early adolescents and that those who felt more similar to own-gender (and less similar to other-gender) felt significantly higher levels of pressure and that the highest source of pressure was the self rather than peers or parents. We discuss how the present research provides insights into who experiences the highest levels of felt pressure to conform to gender norms and suggests that self-socialization plays a strong role in gender development for many early adolescents.
There are costs and benefits to conforming and resisting gender norms, and this ratio likely changes during the transition to adulthood. In this paper, we explore the development of young men’s masculine norm resistance from adolescence through emerging adulthood. Using thematic analysis on interviews with cisgender young adult men who reported feeling at least somewhat gender atypical (N = 30, Mage = 23, White = 74%), we found that: (a) men reported more direct and indirect gender norm resistance (GNR) as they aged, (b) as men felt less pressure to conform to gender norms, they reported more ease with expressing indirect GNR, and (c) that direct GNR generally paralleled developing an understanding of critical consciousness of broader social inequities. Our study answers the call to utilize a developmental approach to study men and masculinities, and in so doing, illuminates men’s dynamic navigation of masculine norms during the transition into adulthood
We explored how gender and gender similarity affects friendship dissolution following the transition to middle school. We predicted that both gender and gender similarity (measured by perceived similarity to own-gender and other-gender peers) explain dissolution trends and that less own-gender similarity or more other-gender similarity predicts more friendship dissolution. We considered gender and gender similarity at both the individual and dyad level (reflecting the discrepancy between friends). Participants were 198 students in Grade 6 (42% Latinx, 21% Caucasian, 10% Native American, 8% African American, 2% Asian American, and 17% mixed backgrounds; 77% qualified for free/reduced meals) in reciprocated same- or mixed-gender friendships followed from fall to spring of the academic year. Multilevel multimember logistic regression models, nesting friendships within each participating individual, demonstrated that girl– girl friendships were less likely to dissolve than boy–boy friendships, and mixed-gender friendships did not dissolve more than same-gender friendships. Feeling similar to one’s own gender predicted less dissolution, but feeling similar to the other gender did not increase friendship dissolution. There was no support for the hypothesis that feeling similar to both genders (i.e., androgyny) protected against friendship dissolution, nor was there any support for the hypothesis that dyad-level differences in gender similarity would predict dissolution. The discussion focuses on the importance of conducting individual and dyad-level analyses as well as including gender similarity constructs when studying gender differences in friendships and their trajectories over time.