Master of Science

thesisIt is common for children to occasionally display traits, interests, or behaviors that are not stereotypically associated with their sex. However, gender nonconforming children, who frequently display many of these traits and behaviors, are at risk for a variety of negative psychosocial outcomes, including internalizing symptoms, victimization, and even suicidality. Parents of gender nonconforming children likely play a crucial role in supporting their healthy development, yet many parents are uncomfortable with gender nonconformity and may even attempt to discourage it in their child. This study examined specific parent and child characteristics that predict how parents respond to their child engaging in gender nonconforming behaviors. A total of 279 parents reported on their child's gender nonconformity, their own gender expression, their attitudes towards gender roles, their parenting style, their degree of discomfort with gender nonconforming behaviors, and how frequently they would attempt to change those behaviors in their child. Results indicated that male child sex, lower degree of child gender nonconformity, and traditional attitudes towards gender roles predicted greater parent discomfort. After accounting for the effects of discomfort with gender nonconformity, male child sex, traditional attitudes towards gender roles, parent warmth, and parent psychological control predicted more frequent parent efforts to change gender nonconforming behaviors. Notably, parents of boys were less likely to attempt to change their son's gender nonconforming behaviors if their son frequently engaged in these behaviors. On the other hand, fathers of daughters were less likely to attempt to change their behaviors compared to fathers of sons or mothers in general. These data contribute to our understanding of the unique parent-child contexts that are associated with parents being uncomfortable with their child and attempting to unnecessarily intervene on their behaviors in order to fit in with societal expectations for gender roles