Relations Among Gender Typicality, Peer Relations, and Mental Health During Early Adolescence

Abstract

The current study examines whether being high in gender typicality is associated with popularity, whether being low in gender typicality is associated with rejection/teasing, and whether teasing due to low gender typicality mediates the association with negative mental health. Middle school children (34 boys and 50 girls) described hypothetical popular and rejected/teased peers, and completed self‐report measures about their own gender typicality, experiences with gender‐based teasing, depressive symptoms, anxiety, self‐esteem, and body image. Participants also completed measures about their peers' gender typicality, popularity, and likeability. Results indicated that popular youth were described as more gender typical than rejected/teased youth. Further, being typical for one's gender significantly predicted being rated as popular by peers, and this relationship was moderated by gender. Finally, low gender typicality predicted more negative mental health outcomes for boys. These relationships were, at times, mediated by experiences with gender‐based teasing, suggesting that negative mental health outcomes may be a result of the social repercussions of being low in gender typicality rather than a direct result of low typicality.

Do I fit in? Psychosocial ramifications of low gender typicality in early adolescence

“…Those who perceive themselves not to be gender typical may feel distressed, in part, because they feel that they do not fit in the way they should or because they may worry what that sense of not fitting in may imply (e.g., about their sexual orientation). However, negative social feedback is also potent, regardless of whether it is from family (e.g., Kane, 2006), teachers (e.g., Pascoe, 2012), or peers (e.g., Jewell & Brown, 2014). We focus in the study on peer victimization in middle school because such mistreatment increases during early adolescence (Pellegrini & Long, 2002) and, at the same time, sensitivity to negative social signals is heightened (Blakemore & Mills, 2014).…”

Development of Gender Typicality and Felt Pressure in European French and North African French Adolescents

“…We chose these constructs because of their established relations to well‐being. Higher levels of gender typicality are associated with lower levels of psychopathology, positive psychosocial adjustment, and greater academic motivation in adolescent and young adult racially/ethnically diverse samples (DiDonato & Berenbaum, ; Jewell & Brown, ; Skinner, Kurtz‐Costes, Wood, & Rowley, ; Smith & Leaper, ; Vantieghem, Vermeersch, & Van Houtte, ). In contrast, higher levels of felt pressure in preadolescents and adolescents are associated with lower levels of psychosocial adjustment (Corby, Hodges, & Perry, ; Yunger, Carver, & Perry, ).…”

The Potential Scientist’s Dilemma: How the Masculine Framing of Science Shapes Friendships and Science Job Aspirations

“…Youth “try on gender” [30] in middle school and pay more attention to peers than parents for identities [31,32]. Gender atypical youth are rated as less popular by peers and report more gender-based bullying than gender typical youth [33]. Although the implications for the social status of girls who aspire to be scientists are clear, only a few studies have examined how differential social network connections influence paths into or away from science fields [34–37].…”