http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00121649
Sexual Orientation and Childhood Gender Nonconformity: Evidence From Home Videos
Gerulf Rieger, Joan A.W. Linsenmeier, Lorenz Gygax and J. Michael Bailey
Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
Swiss Federal Veterinary Office, Agroscope Tänikon, Ettenhausen, Switzerland
Received 28 August 2006; revised 22 May 2007; accepted 24 May 2007. Available online 1 February 2008.
Abstract: Homosexual adults tend to be more gender nonconforming than heterosexual adults in some of their behaviors, feelings, and interests. Retrospective studies have also shown large differences in childhood gender nonconformity, but these studies have been criticized for possible memory biases. The authors studied an indicator of childhood gender nonconformity not subject to such biases: childhood home videos. They recruited homosexual and heterosexual men and women (targets) with videos from their childhood and subsequently asked heterosexual and homosexual raters to judge the gender nonconformity of the targets from both the childhood videos and adult videos made for the study. Prehomosexual children were judged more gender nonconforming, on average, than preheterosexual children, and this pattern obtained for both men and women. This difference emerged early, carried into adulthood, and was consistent with self-report. In addition, targets who were more gender nonconforming tended to recall more childhood rejection.
Author Keywords: sexual orientation; development; sex-typed behavior; behavioral observation
We thank Shannon Summerfield, Debbie Zutty, Noah Metz, Stella Fayman, Sarah Kate McGowan, Tamar Carmel, Tom Grant, Ashley Mason, and Evan Drake for their assistance in this research.
Corresponding Author Contact InformationDepartment of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Swift Hall #102, Evanston IL 60208.