Daily gender expression is associated with psychological adjustment for some people, but mainly men

Average Links Between Daily Gender Expression and Depressive Symptoms Do Not Describe Individual Adolescents

Gender expression is important for mental health, with masculinity and femininity having differential significance for unique adolescents. Yet, most empirical work on gender expression assumes it is trait-like or similarly shifting across teens. This intensive longitudinal study examined state-like aspects of gender expression and heterogeneity in adolescent-specific associations with depressive symptoms over 100 days. Participants were 106 adolescents, including 5 gender-expansive youth (54.7% cisgirls, 74.5% White; Mage = 13.31, SDage = 1.94). A sample-average link between daily masculinity and reduced symptoms was found for cisboys. Adolescent-specific results qualified this effect: Only ~25% evidenced an association between daily gender-congruent expression-masculinity for cisboys and femininity for cisgirls-and daily reduced symptoms. Using 9000+ daily reports, findings highlight the dynamic nature of gender expression and the need to use a person-specific approach in understanding the heterogenous psychological correlates of masculinity and femininity for today's youth.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI): A Tutorial on Ethical Data Practices

In the U.S., approximately 13 million individuals identify as part of a sexual and gender minority (SGM). This broad spectrum includes sexual orientation identities such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, pansexual, and same-gender-loving, as well as gender identities such as transgender, gender non-conforming, bigender, and two-spirit. As behavior analysts heed the call to engage in culturally competent practices that address diverse sexual orientation and gender identities (SOGI), they will likely consider collecting SOGI data as part of their practice. The benefits of SOGI data collection certainly exist. However, the historical oppression and increased vulnerability of SGM populations require a careful and thorough evaluation of ethical data collection practices to avoid harm and to ensure respectful and inclusive practices. The present tutorial aims to begin the discussion of ethical and effective SOGI data collection practices within behavior analysis by offering initial guidelines and considerations. We highlight methods that improve cultural sensitivity, and caution against traditional methods that could harm respondents or contribute to a non-inclusive environment.

State gender variability and body satisfaction among sexual minority men

Prominent theories of gender suggest that gender can be variable, rather than static. For example, a person may experience changes in their masculinity and femininity in daily life, which we refer to as 'state gender variability.' Theory and research suggest that the degree to which masculinity and femininity fluctuate may have implications for body satisfaction. In this study, we analysed intensive longitudinal data to gain nuanced insights into how masculinity and femininity vary in everyday life among a sample of majority cis-gender sexual minority men. We first present a comprehensive descriptive analysis of gender variability. Second, we test whether individual differences in gender variability are associated with body satisfaction. Masculinity and femininity were moderately stable, with substantial within-person variability. Masculinity and femininity tended to be more variable than state body satisfaction and negative affect. Further, variability and instability in masculinity were associated with lower body satisfaction. Conversely, variability in femininity was associated with higher scores on body satisfaction. Our study contributes to a growing literature examining the implications of masculinity and femininity for sexual minority men's body image and opens up new lines of inquiry focused on state gender variability.

Gender matters for daily depression: Symptom fluctuations and links to self-expression

Background

Depression is a global health burden, disproportionately affecting women. A lack of contextual, real-life assessments considering the oft-gendered context (e.g., expression) of daily symptom fluctuations may contribute to this disparity. The current study examines: a) gender differences in daily depressive symptoms - and fluctuations; and b) daily links between self-perceived gender expression and depressive symptoms.

Methods

Established adults (N = 96; M age = 28.19, SD age = 8.43) participated in an ecologically-valid multi-wave 100-day intensive longitudinal study. They reported daily on their depressive symptoms, and on their self-expression in the final study wave. Gender differences in daily symptoms fluctuations (intraindividual standard deviations) and their links to gender expression (person-specific residualized correlations) were examined.

Results

Women experienced greater day-to-day symptom fluctuations than men, after accounting for the gender difference in baseline symptoms (b = -0.05; 95 % CI: [-0.093, -0.012]). Results from a subsample (n = 28) showed that daily links between gender expression and depressive symptoms were heterogeneous: For 38.5 % of men and 53.3 % of women, daily increases in congruent gender expressions (i.e., masculine for men and feminine for women) corresponded with daily symptom decreases, but many individuals (46.4 %) did not show meaningful relations.

Conclusions

Results highlight the utility of intensive longitudinal approaches for the study of depression and, for some people, the daily psychological relations with gender self-perceptions. Results also emphasize heterogeneity in depression etiology and the need for personalized basic and applied science.

Limitations

Future research on individuals with varying gender identities and clinical experiences is needed.

Daily Gender and Cognition: A Person-Specific Behavioral Network Analysis

Gender is person-specific, and it influences and is influenced by a breadth of multidimensional psychological factors, including cognition. Directionality is important for research on gender and cognition, as debate surrounds, for instance, whether masculine self-concepts precede spatial skills, or whether the reverse is true. In order to provide novel insights into the individualized nature of these relations, a person-specific network approach devised by Peter Molenaar and the first author - group iterative multiple model estimation for multiple solutions (GIMME-MS) - was applied to 75-day intensive longitudinal data on gender self-concept (i.e., femininity-masculinity, instrumentality, and expressivity) and cognition (i.e., mental rotations and verbal recall) from 103 young adults. GIMME-MS estimates individualized networks that contain same-day and next-day directed relations, prioritizing relations common across participants. It is ideal for analyzing behavioral time series with unclear directionality, as it generates multiple solutions from which an optimal one is selected. GIMME-MS revealed notable heterogeneity in the presence, direction, and nature of relations from gender self-concept to cognition (∼26% of participants) and vice versa (∼21% of participants). Findings are wholly novel in revealing the person-specific nature of gender and its cognitive dynamics, yet somehow, unsurprising given the revolutionary corpus of Peter Molenaar.

Gender-aware Parkinson's care: a design-based study of patient perspectives on gender norms and gender-sensitive care

Background

Gender dimensions are progressively recognised as a relevant social determinant of health in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, little is known about the impact of gender norms and stereotypes on illness experiences of men and women with PD and what they consider important focal points for gender-sensitive PD care.

Methods

We conducted two equity-centred design (ECD) sessions on December 7, 2022 and December 8, 2022, at the Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. This participatory multi-method approach includes patients in the research and design process and was used to explore the impact of gender norms and stereotypes in illness experiences and generate patient-driven recommendations for gender-aware Parkinson's care. Quantitative survey data and design-based data were descriptively analysed, and qualitative focus group discussions were thematically analysed.

Findings

This study included thirteen men and fifteen women with PD in the Netherlands. All participants were of Dutch descent, with a median age of 65.5 years and a median clinical disease duration of 4.2 years. The gendered stereotype that "people with PD are old men" affected both men's and women's perception of living with the disease and the perceptions of their social environment. Men described masculine stereotypes related to physical strength and provider roles, while women expressed those related to feminine physical appearance and caregiver roles, influencing their illness experiences. For some, these norms influenced personal behaviours, while for others, they affected experiences through societal attitudes.

Interpretation

Our findings suggested that several gender norms and stereotypes influence the illness experiences of men and women with PD, manifesting at ideological, interpersonal, and internalised levels. Some participants internalised these norms, affecting their coping behaviours, while others encountered them in broader ideological contexts that shaped societal attitudes and interpersonal relationships. To advance gender sensitive PD care, it's essential to explore the impact of gender roles and norms, especially regarding how they might impede coping strategies, care access and utilisation for individuals of diverse gender identities.

Funding

The Gatsby Foundation and co-funded by the PPP Allowance by Health∼Holland. Travel reimbursements for participants were made available through a Parkinson's Foundation grant (PF-FBS-2026).

The Link Between Masculinity and Spatial Skills Is Moderated by the Estrogenic and Progestational Activity of Oral Contraceptives

Conversations about gender and spatial skills frequently dissolve into a hackneyed debate over nature and nurture. This is particularly true for conversations concerning three-dimensional (3D) mental rotations skill, which shows the largest gender difference of all aspects of cognition, with men-on average-outperforming women. To advance this empirical area of inquiry, biopsychosocial influences on spatial skills should be considered, and a unique opportunity do to that is provided by combined oral contraceptives (OCs). OCs with relatively low estradiol doses and with highly androgenic progestins have been positively related to spatial skills. Gender self-concepts, including masculine and feminine self-perceptions, have also been positively related to spatial skills. It is wholly unknown, however, whether the exogenous sex hormones contained in OCs moderate the link between self-perceived masculinity and 3D mental rotations. This study filled that knowledge gap by utilizing a sample of 141 naturally cycling (NC) women and 229 OC users who completed a computerized survey and cognitive tests. A series of moderation analyses examined whether the link between masculinity and 3D mental rotations depended on pill use or on the estrogenic, progestational, or androgenic activity in OCs, which were operationalized using a novel coding scheme. Results showed that the positive masculinity-3D mental rotations link was only present for NC women, presumably because it was altered by the exogenous hormones in OCs. Indeed, the link was accentuated in users of OCs with relatively low estrogenic and high progestational activity. Future research on menstrual cycle and pill phase is needed, but these findings importantly delineate ways in which biological and psychosocial factors combine to explain variation in spatial skills among women. They also suggest that focus should be placed on the under-investigated progestational activity of OCs, which is facilitated by the novel quantification of OC action used in this study. Thus, this research increases understanding of the neurocognitive and behavioral correlates of ovarian hormones and has implications for the betterment of women's health.

Little evidence for sex or ovarian hormone influences on affective variability

Women were historically excluded from research participation partly due to the assumption that ovarian hormone fluctuations lead to variation, especially in emotion, that could not be experimentally controlled. Although challenged in principle and practice, relevant empirical data are limited by single measurement occasions. The current paper fills this knowledge gap using data from a 75-day intensive longitudinal study. Three indices of daily affective variability-volatility, emotional inertia, and cyclicity-were evaluated using Bayesian inferential methods in 142 men, naturally cycling women, and women using three different oral contraceptive formulations (that "stabilize" hormone fluctuations). Results provided more evidence for similarities between men and women-and between naturally cycling women and oral contraceptive users-than for differences. Even if differences exist, effects are likely small. Thus, there is little indication that ovarian hormones influence affective variability in women to a greater extent than the biopsychosocial factors that influence daily emotion in men.