Gender identity

The present dissertation introduces three new measures of gender identity and examines their relations to psychosocial adjustment (i.e., self-concept and peer acceptance) in preadolescence. The sample consisted of 182 4th- through 8th-grade children. The three measures assessed (a) feelings of overall similarity to and compatibility with one's gender (goodness-of-fit), (b) feelings of pressure to conform to sex-role stereotypes (felt pressure), and (c) belief that one's sex is superior to the other sex (intergroup bias). Both concurrent and short-term longitudinal analyses indicated that goodness-of-fit was beneficial to psychosocial adjustment, whereas both felt pressure and intergroup bias undermined psychosocial adjustment. Furthermore, goodness-of-fit mediated many of the relations of domain-specific sex-typing measures (e.g., traits) to adjustment. The present dissertation helps identify some of the inherent limitations in previous work on gender identity, provides new insight into the relation of children's gender identity and psychosocial development, and raises suggestions for future inquiry.

This thesis examined relations of multiple dimensions of gender identity same gender typicality, other-gender typicality, gender contentedness, gender oppression, felt pressure to conform, and gender centrality) to children's adjustment (global self-worth, narcissism, depression, internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, and prosocial behaviors. Participants were 237 fourth through eighth graders (108 males, 129 females; M[underscore] age = 11 years, 4 months). Each measure of gender identity related to children's adjustment in a unique way. Findings also showed gender centrality to moderate relations of other gender identity variables to adjustment, suggesting that how central gender is to a child influences the impact of other gender self-appraisals on the child's development and adjustment.

This research is based on an ethnographic study conducted in 2008. The study took place in Ecuador's coastal province of Manabâi and investigates the lives of a community of transvestite males, known locally as travestâis. This research holds that the social space in which the travestâis live and work, in Puerto Lopez, is negotiated and maintained through a complex interchange of three key factors: the experience of mother's love, the local economy, and sexual desire. The social space itself is defined as a "binary passage." Most of the travestâis are employed as hairdressers, and they draw a wide range of clientele from Puerto Lopez and surrounding smaller villages. Yet, how is it that travestâis can lead open and productive lives in a region that highly values machismo? This research focuses on both the origins of the travestâis' social space and the means by which it is maintained through key discourses.

Sports and its effects on children have been researched for the benefits that it may bring. The purpose of this study is to see if sports competency, assessed by both peer reports and self-reports, benefits both boys and girls and whether it protects children who generally are gender-atypical from adjustment difficulties and also to see if there are any interactive influences of cross-gender typing and sports competency on self-esteem, depression, and other adjustment indexes. Our results found that there was a significant interaction between sports competence and cross-gender typing when looking at popularity and also a significant interaction between sports self-efficacy and cross-gender typing when looking at self-esteem. Our data did not provide sufficient support for our buffering hypothesis, but it allowed for us to conclude that self-esteem of low-cross-gender-typed children profit more from high sports self-efficacy and suffer more from low sports self-efficacy than the self-esteem of high-cross-gender-typed children.

This thesis focuses primarily on homophobia and how it plays a role in the construction of queer identities, specifically in graphic novels and comic books. The primary texts being analyzed are Alan Moore's Lost Girls, Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and Michael Chabon's prose novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Throughout these and many other comics, queer identities reflect homophobic stereotypes rather than resisting them. However, this thesis argues that, despite the homophobic tendencies of these texts, the very nature of comics (their visual aspects, panel structures, and blank gutters) allows for an alternative space for positive queer identities.

The fact that 45% of boys and 32% of girls in the United States participate in youth sports suggests that sports participation might be an important influence on children's psychosocial development. This study explored: (1) how children's gender cognitions influence sports self-efficacy and (2) how sports self-efficacy influences children's psychosocial adjustment. Results suggest that for boys, felt pressure to conform to gender standards and the belief that sports is important for boys influence sports self-efficacy. In girls, both the belief that sports is important for girls and the belief that sports is important for boys predicted sports self-efficacy. Sports self-efficacy predicted benefits for girls adjustment (high self-esteem, higher body satisfaction, lower depression and lower anxiety) but both positive and negative outcomes for boys (higher narcissism, higher aggression, and lower depression and lower anxiety). The findings overall suggest that the correlates of sports self-efficacy are somewhat different for boys and for girls.

One of the hypotheses put forth by the Gender Self-Socialization Model (GSSM) is the stereotype emulation hypothesis. This hypothesis states that one role of gender identity is to motivate children to follow gender stereotypes that they have internalized. The GSSM also states that each of the constructs of gender identity, gender stereotypes, and gender typing is product of the cognitive interplay between the other two. Egan and Perry (2001) conceptualized gender identity as multidimensional, and one of these dimensions is felt pressure against other gender behavior. This study found that there was an interaction between one aspect of gender identity (felt pressure) and gender stereotypes, supporting the stereotype emulation hypothesis. This study also found that the interaction between felt pressure and sexism was more powerful in predicting adjustment in children than looking only at the main effect of felt pressure.

For many gay men performing a gay-centric identity can be challenging. By adopting a set of expected behaviors known as the gay cultural script, many of these men are potentially met with discrimination from both heterosexual and homosexual communities. The gay cultural script is readily available as it is found within the gay ghettos and through various representations of gay men in the media. This research question examines how the gay cultural script when found within the gay ghetto and through the media's representation of gay men provides a lens to which the performance of a gay-centric identity may be communicated and shared. The focus of this research is separated into three interconnected areas: (1) exploration of gay-cultural script, (2) location to which the gay cultural script operates and, (3) analysis of the relationship between the gay cultural script and gay-centric identity performance.