Contemporary Cognitive Approaches to Gender Development: New Schemas, New Directions, and New Conceptualizations of Gender

Cook, Rachel; Martin, Carol Lynn; Nielson, Matthew G.; Xiao, Sonya Xinyue

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-84273-4_5

Cited by 7 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 101 publications

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“…We tested all possible effects but found few cross-lagged effects and no mediation effects. One cross-lagged effect was that students who had more exposure to gender equality before graduation felt less pressure for gender conformity after they graduated, which is consistent with the general understanding of an association between felt pressure and liberal gender attitudes (Cook et al, 2022). We found an unpredicted cross-lagged path showing that stronger gender stereotypes predicted less attention to others' gender (i.e., lower other-gender salience).…”

Section: Cross-lagged Path Analysessupporting

confidence: 84%

Gender cognitions before and after graduating from single-sex versus coeducational high schools: A longitudinal study using propensity score matching.

Shi,

Li,

Liben

et al. 2024

Journal of Educational Psychology

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Comparisons between single-sex (SS) and coeducational (CE) schools are often limited in design. Associations between SS schooling and gender cognitions remain especially unclear. We compared gender cognitions in students from SS versus CE high schools. A longitudinal design addressed long-term reciprocal effects, and propensity score matching addressed preexisting (confounding) differences between SS and CE students. During the final year of high school (N = 667) and again following graduation (N = 463), students completed measures of gender salience, gender stereotypes, felt pressure for gender conformity, and exposure to gender equality. Before graduation, SS students were more gender salient about self, reported more exposure to gender equality, and had less pressure for gender conformity. The magnitudes of these SS-CE differences were small but did not change significantly over time. However, gender salience about self did not predict or mediate other gender cognitions as often hypothesized, and there were no differences in gender salience about others or in gender stereotypes. We conclude that SS schooling is related to some gender-related cognitions both prior to and following high school graduation. However, findings are neither consistently supportive nor critical of either type of schooling. SS schooling was positively related to students' attention to their own gender, but how this attention relates to other gender cognitions may vary across individuals in ways that need further research. Our design innovations and inclusion of debated yet understudied outcomes contribute to a fuller evaluation of SS versus CE schooling by examining long-term development and by expanding the outcomes evaluated. Educational Impact and Implications StatementWe employed a novel rigorous design that followed students longitudinally before and after their high school graduation and examined understudied outcomes (i.e., gender cognitions) to evaluate single-sex versus coeducational schooling more fully. Single-sex, compared to coeducational, high school students are slightly more conscious of their gender but are no more or are less gender-typed in some other gender cognitions. High school students' gender cognitions undergo temporal changes regardless of school type.

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Section: Cross-lagged Path Analysessupporting

confidence: 84%

Gender cognitions before and after graduating from single-sex versus coeducational high schools: A longitudinal study using propensity score matching.

Shi,

Li,

Liben

et al. 2024

Journal of Educational Psychology

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“…Based on these theoretical approaches, a certain degree of congruence between children's gender similarity and behavior is expected. This has been corroborated in many studies and has been attributed to gender cognitions, like gender identity and similarity, being important motivators for the adoption of gendered behaviors (Cook et al, 2022). Unsurprisingly, incongruence between one's gender and gender expression has been argued to foster feelings of anxiety, discomfort, or depression in cisgender individuals (Akerlof & Kranton, 2000;Higgins, 1987) and transgender or gendernonconforming individuals (Chodzen et al, 2019).…”

Section: Children's Gender Similarity and Their Gender-typical Appear...mentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Whereas social learning theories focus on modeling, reinforcement, and imitation, cognitive perspectives on gender development propose that children are not merely passive recipients of all gender-related information and socialization from their environments, but instead play an active role in learning gender-typical behavior via their own beliefs and cognitions about gender (Cook et al, 2022;Martin et al, 2002). From a cognitive perspective, it is relevant to study children's gender similarity in relation to their gendered appearance because appearance is an important way in which people communicate and express their gender to the outside world (Barnes & Eicher, 1993;Tortora & Marcketti, 2021).…”

Section: Children's Gender Similarity and Gender-typical Appearancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cognitive perspectives on gender development (Cook et al, 2022;Martin et al, 2002) can shed light on the link that was found between children's gender similarity (as perceived by parents) and their gender-typical appearance. Based on these theoretical approaches, a certain degree of congruence between children's gender similarity and behavior is expected.…”

Section: Children's Gender Similarity and Their Gender-typical Appear...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender-Typical Appearance in Early Childhood: Role of Parental Gender-Typical Appearance and Children’s Gender Similarity

Endendijk,

Antoniucci,

Chadwick-Brown

et al. 2024

Sex Roles

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The emergence of gender-typical appearance in childhood appears to have important implications not only for child and adolescent social-emotional functioning but also for later working life. In the current study, we examined how parents’ gender-typical appearance and children’s gender similarity (to same- and other-gender peers) were related to young children’s gender-typical appearance. We also explored differences in these associations between boys, girls, mothers, and fathers. Home visits were conducted with 74 Dutch two-parent (mother, father) families with both a son and daughter between the ages 3–6 years (96.6% White, 2.0% Asian, 1.4% other ethnicity). The gender-typical appearance of all four family members was assessed by trained and reliable coders in the videotaped observations from the home visits. As a measure of children’s gender similarity, both parents reported on the similarity of their son and daughter to same-gender and other-gender peers. Generalized estimating equations showed that more gender-typical appearance of parents was associated with more gender-typical appearance of girls, but not of boys. No differences were found between mothers and fathers for the association between parent and child appearance. Moreover, children’s gender similarity, evident in parents’ perceived similarity of their child to peers of the same gender and dissimilarity to peers of the other gender, was associated with more gender-typical appearance in children. To conclude, both children’s gender similarity and parents’ gender-typical appearance appear to play a role in the gender-typical appearance of young children.

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“…This view is derived from cognitive perspectives on gender development (Kohlberg, 1966; Martin & Halverson, 1981) and social identity theories (e.g., Tajfel & Turner, 1986). Cognitive perspectives suggest that individuals take an active role in seeking out pertinent information related to their identity (Martin & Halverson, 1981; Cook et al, 2023); if they are a boy, they guide their attention, memory, and interests to things that they think are typical of boys. An interesting example of this is how adolescents seek out peers with similar gender cognitions (e.g., levels of gender typicality and pressure to conform to gender norms) as themselves (Kornienko et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boys’ Internalized Appearance-Related Norms from Different Socializers Uniquely, Negatively Relate to Wellbeing and Gender Beliefs

Nielson

Tolman

Martin

2023

The Journal of Early Adolescence

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Much of the work on body image socialization masks the potentially unique influence of different socializers, yet clearer understanding of socialization mechanisms and ideological context aid intervention efforts. We explored how fathers, female peers, male peers, and adolescent boys themselves produce different levels of internalized appearance-related norms and how these socializer-specific norms differentially relate to wellbeing and beliefs related to gender identity. With a sample of early adolescent boys ( n = 260; M age = 11.44 years, SD age = .56, 64% White), we used SEM to investigate relations between internalized norms, wellbeing, and gender beliefs. We found that most boys internalized appearance-related norms, and that boys reported higher levels of norms from themselves than from fathers or peers. Internalized appearance-related norms from different socializers uniquely related to self-esteem, private/public regard of gender, and self-presentation expectations in peer interactions. This relational framework provides unique insights into boys’ experiences with their appearance and the role of different socializers.

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Contemporary Cognitive Approaches to Gender Development: New Schemas, New Directions, and New Conceptualizations of Gender

Cited by 7 publications

References 101 publications

Gender cognitions before and after graduating from single-sex versus coeducational high schools: A longitudinal study using propensity score matching.

Gender cognitions before and after graduating from single-sex versus coeducational high schools: A longitudinal study using propensity score matching.

Gender-Typical Appearance in Early Childhood: Role of Parental Gender-Typical Appearance and Children’s Gender Similarity

Boys’ Internalized Appearance-Related Norms from Different Socializers Uniquely, Negatively Relate to Wellbeing and Gender Beliefs

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