Childhood Sex-Typed Behavior and Sexual Orientation: A Conceptual Analysis and Quantitative Review

This article reviewed research examining the association between childhood sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation. Prospective studies suggest that childhood cross-sex-typed behavior is strongly predictive of adult homosexual orientation for men; analogous studies for women have not been performed. Though methodologically more problematic, retrospective studies are useful in determining how many homosexual individuals displayed cross-sex behavior in childhood. The relatively large body of retrospective studies comparing childhood sex-typed behavior in homosexual and heterosexual men and women was reviewed quantitatively. Effect sizes were large for both men and women, with men's significantly larger. Future research should elaborate the causes of the association between childhood sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation and to identify correlates of within-orientation differences in childhood sex-typed behavior. Psychosexual differentiation has been a topic of long-standing interest in developmental psychology. Both classical psychoanalytic theory and learning theory were particularly influential in guiding the first wave of empirical research conducted by developmentalists (see, e.g., ). Sexologists have also made seminal theoretical and empirical contributions. For example, introduced the term to refer to “all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself or herself as having the status of boy or man, girl or woman, respectively. It includes, but is not restricted to, sexuality in the sense of eroticism” (p. 254). Mischel, 1966 Money (1955) gender role Over the next two decades, gender role was decomposed into three conceptually distinct parts (see, e.g., ). First, was distinguished from gender role. For example, , p. 453) used the slightly different term to describe a young child's developing “fundamental sense of belonging to one sex.” Cognitive–developmental psychologists (e.g., ) have used the term gender identity to indicate primarily that a child can accurately discriminate male from female individuals and identify correctly his or her own gender—a task considered by some to be the first stage in gender constancy development. Fagot & Leinbach, 1985 gender identity Stoller (1964 core gender identity Kohlberg, 1966 Compared with original definition, the term gender role is now defined more narrowly. Many scholars have used the term to refer to behaviors, attitudes, and personality traits that a society designates as masculine or feminine, that is, more “appropriate” or typical for the male or female social role (cf. ; ). In young children, the measurement of gender role behavior includes several easily observable phenomena, including affiliative preference for same versus opposite sex peers, interest in rough-and-tumble play, fantasy roles, toy interests, and dress-up play (see ). In this article, we use the term to refer to those behaviors that have been typically studied as markers of childhood gender identity and gender role. Money's (1955) Huston, 1983 Unger, 1979 Zucker, 1985 sex-typed 5/14/03 7:25 AM Ovid: Bailey: Dev Psychol, Volume 31(1).January 1995.43–55 Page 2 of 23 https://snap.it.northwestern.edu/p/p.cgi/ovidcom/gateway1:80/ovidweb.cgi The third, erotic, component of original definition of gender role has also been operationalized more narrowly, most commonly under the rubric of the term . In contemporary sexology, sexual orientation refers to whether a person is more strongly aroused sexually by members of his or her own sex, the opposite sex, or both sexes (homosexual, heterosexual, and bisexual, respectively). Money's (1955) sexual orientation The behavioral markers of gender identity and gender role emerge early, typically by ages 2–4 years, and become “consolidated” thereafter (e.g., ; ). In contrast, sexual orientation appears to be more readily assessed after puberty, as a person's sexual interests and desires become more salient (cf. ). At least three models have been proposed about the relation between childhood sex-typed behavior and later sexual orientation. One model hypothesizes a developmental sequence in which gender identity develops before gender role, which, in turn, develops before sexual orientation (e.g., ; ). In this model, adult sexual orientation is conceptualized as an of psychosexual differentiation, analogous, for example, to as an end state of cognitive development. Another model reverses this developmental sequence, positing that sexual orientation is apparent early enough in development to influence the expression of sex-typed behavior (e.g., ). A third model gives less attention to the temporal sequence between these two variables and instead emphasizes the possibility that sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation are both influenced by the same factors, such as prenatal sex hormones (see ; , pp. 12–15). Fagot, 1985 Huston, 1983 Meyer-Bahlburg, 1980 Green, 1974, 1987 Meyer-Bahlburg, 1980 end state formal operations