The transformation of emotional component of gender identity of adolescent girls

Abstract

The subject of this research is the emotional component of gender identity of adolescent girls. The goal is to determine the specificity of transformation of the emotional component of gender identity of adolescent girls. The author meticulously analyzes the transformation of emotional component of gender identity of adolescent girls. Gender identity implies the internal dynamic structure that integrates separate aspects of personality, associated with perception of oneself as a representative of particular gender and self-regulation of the gender-role behavior. Research methodology is based on the cultural-historical theory of mental development of a person developed by L. S. Vygotsky, age periodization developed by D. B. Elkonin, conceptual positions in the context of studying gender problematic developed by E. P. Ilyin, V. E. Kagan, I. S. Kletsina, N. Y. Flotskaya, and other works.. The empirical basis includes 30 adolescent girls from the nuclear families. The age of respondents from the first to the fourth year of research was 12-13, 14, 15, and 16-17 y.o. respectively. This article is first to theoretically substantiate and provide empirical evidence of the existence of transformation of emotional component of gender identity of girls during their puberty period. The author determines the qualitative characteristics of emotional component of gender identity of girls at early, middle, and later stages of adolescence. The conclusion is made that the emotional component of gender identity of adolescent girls transforms throughout the earlier adolescence to later adolescence. Therefore, at the age of 12-13, teenage girls perceive their mother as exigent, while seeing the father as rather positive. At the age of 14, girls perceive the father as emotionally detached, indifferent, while the attitude towards the mother is unstable and changeable. At the age of 15, the father is perceived as antagonistic and emotionally detached, while the mother is also perceived as antagonistic and indifferent. By the age of 16-17, girls form attitudes towards themselves through the current and future social roles – daughter, sister, mother, wife.