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Multidimensional Gender Identity and Psychological Adjustment in Middle Childhood: A Study in China

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Abstract

This study examined the multiple components of gender identity (Egan and Perry 2001) and their relationships with psychological adjustment among 201 boys and 160 girls (aged 9 to 12 years) in Mainland China. Boys were found to be more content about their gender but feel more pressure to conform to gender stereotypes than girls. No gender or age differences were found in children’s intergroup bias. Higher gender typicality was related to greater global self-worth, greater social competence, and lower sense of loneliness. However, neither felt pressure nor gender contentment significantly predicted psychological adjustment. These results were compared with findings of previous United States-based studies to highlight the impacts of cultural contexts on gender identity and their effects on adjustment.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. David Perry for his generous provision of the gender identity measurement. We also thank Dr. Sam Winter for his useful suggestions on the early research design. We thank Kandi Holmes and Elizabeth Hood for proofreading the paper. Preliminary findings were presented at the World Mental Health Congress, Hong Kong, August 2007.

This research was supported by Faculty Research Fund from the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, SAR, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Room 109, Hui Oi Chow Science Building, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR, China

    Lu Yu

  2. Department of Psychology and Counseling, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR, USA

    Dong Xie

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  1. Lu Yu
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  2. Dong Xie
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Correspondence to Lu Yu.

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This paper is in part based on the first author’s PhD Dissertation in the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R., China.

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Yu, L., Xie, D. Multidimensional Gender Identity and Psychological Adjustment in Middle Childhood: A Study in China. Sex Roles 62, 100–113 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-009-9709-2

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