It begins at 10.
That is the provocative title of a new study, published in October in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The subtitle, “How Gender Expectations Shape Early Adolescence Around the World,” explains what the researchers, from the World Health Organization and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, were looking for. What they found was all over the world children are exposed to rigid gender stereotyping, and these norms are well-established in children by age 10 or 11. And that can have a significant impact on children’s mental and behavioral health as they grow older.
Called the Global Early Adolescent Study, this project took nearly four years and included interviews with parents or guardians and their children from 15 countries on five continents. They were asked about their experiences growing up, including what it meant to be a boy or girl in their culture.
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The study highlighted five specific findings:
1. Around the globe, schools, parents, media and peers reinforce the myths that girls are vulnerable and boys are strong and independent. “Even in sites where parents acknowledged the vulnerability of their sons, they focus on protecting their daughters,” the researchers note.
2. Boys are universally viewed as predators and girls as potential targets and victims. “Messages such as — do not sit like that, do not wear that, do not talk to him, boys will ruin your future –support the gender division of power and affect while promote [sic] sex segregation to preserve girl’s sexuality,” they write. “In some places, girls come to internalize these norms to even a greater extent than boys.”
3. As a result of these perceptions girls are far more restricted in their movement than boys are. “As one girl in Assiut, Egypt noted: ‘A girl cannot go out as she wishes because she is a girl and if a girl came home late her parents would shout at her, but it is okay for a guy.'”
4. Boys are considered dangerous. “Because of adult concerns about their sexual vulnerability, girls are repeatedly told to stay away from boys and there are sanctions if they do not –punishment, social isolation, sexual rumor and innuendo. Both boys and girls lament this situation. They played together as children and were friends, but now with puberty, those friendships are no longer legitimate.”
5. Both boys and girls are well aware that some of their peers are gender nonconforming. “Young people (as well as a number of parents) spoke of peers whose interests, appearance, dress and/or appearance was more typical of the opposite sex than their own. For such young people, there were significant sanctions and pressures to conform to what is seen as gender-appropriate behaviors; and our quantitative data suggest that boys are even less tolerant of such peers than girls.”
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Serious Implications
The authors of the study write that these beliefs have significant implications for both sexes. The consequences for girls include child marriage, dropping out of school, pregnancy, HIV and sexually transmitted infection risk, exposure to violence and depression. And they add that “despite popular perceptions boys are not unscathed,” these norms put boys at a higher risk than girls to engage in and become victims of physical violence. Boys die more often from unintentional injuries, are more likely to engage in substance abuse and commit suicide and, as adults, have a shorter life span than women.
“What stood out to me most was the breadth of this study,” said Dr. Natalia Ramos, assistant clinical professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine and a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist at UCLA Health. “There are so many commonalities, even among very different places, about quote-unquote boys’ and girls’ behaviors. We know stereotyping is culturally based, so it is a little surprising that these stereotypes have become so international.”
These beliefs are not benign, particularly on those who do not conform to the stereotypes. Dr. Jack Turban, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he studies pediatric gender identity, said of the study: “The mental health significance of these societal gender expectations was striking. What we have learned over the past several years is that shame and stigma are dramatic risk factors for mental health problems. When children are shamed for gender ‘atypical’ interests, they become anxious, depressed and isolated.”
The effects of these messages add up over time. “It is important not to underestimate what these unconscious attitudes and messages have on development,” says Ramos, who is also the medical director for the Child Psychiatry Consultation Liaison Service at UCLA Santa Monica. Those who do not fit into these classifications may feel stress, a prime risk factor for depression. “Any time you are in position of ‘otherness,’ with no representation that reflects you, can be a dangerous and scary place to be in.”
Stress and fear, particularly at a young age, may set a foundation for later depression. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, states that what are known as “adverse childhood experiences,” or ACE, especially when there are multiple, diverse types, “constitute a set of potent risk factors for major depressive disorder.” A 2004 study found that, “exposure to ACEs is associated with increased risk of depressive disorders up to decades after their occurrence.”
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Room for Hope
Gender differences, the researchers point out, are socially — not biologically — determined. That means the process is “amenable to change by fostering gender equitable approaches that have the potential to improve the well-being of adolescent boys and adolescent girls in the short and long terms,” the study authors write.
That is a challenge, they admit. “This study showed us that society places extreme pressures on children to conform to gender norms,” Turban says. “It’s a parent’s job to bolster children’s self-esteem and to protect them from these forces. Parents may not be able to change society, but parental support and acceptance can go a long way in fostering resilience in children.”
That includes encouraging kids to be curious, to explore and to have access to a wide array of toys, media and people, Ramos says. “Development is a long process,” she says. “Kids evolve and need exposure” to a variety of ideas, especially those that integrate and validate their nonconforming traits. “Kids don’t understand super-abstract concepts like stereotypes, but you can have simple conversations about what people are wearing, simpler ways of talking about gender in terms of character and behavior,” she says. “Challenge some stereotypes. Ask, ‘Why is that princess always wearing pink?'”
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Can Rigid Gender Stereotyping Increase a Child’s Risk of Depression? originally appeared on usnews.com
