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A grant for a two-year study was awarded to the University of Washington this summer. The project will interview 250 children aged four to six, and their parents, asking a series of questions about "gendered behavior."
"Prominent theories of gender development have discussed the degree to which gender identity results from an internal sense of gender and socialization processes," according to the grant. "However, tests of these theories have been limited because, for most children, internal gender identity and environmental socialization substantially overlap, rendering it impossible to distinguish the relative impact of each factor on gender development."
The study will investigate whether gender theories, such as Gender Schema Theory that blames society on differences between genders, are sufficient for today's "wider range of human gender experiences," where there can be anywhere between 3, 37, and 58 genders.
Among the study's questions asked of preschoolers includes what gender toys they play with.
"The project will involve asking 250, 4- to 6-year olds and their parents to complete a battery of measures assessing early and current gender socialization, children's internal sense of gender identity, children's gendered behavior (e.g., preferences for gender-typed toys) and measures of related gender cognition (e.g., memory for gender-consistent vs. inconsistent behaviors)," the grant states. "These measures will allow the researchers to examine the relative contributions of internal gender identity and socialization and ultimately provide a more comprehensive theory accounting for early gender development."
The University of Washington received $138,000 for the project in July. The study will continue through June 2019.
Kristina Olson and Selin Gülgöz, two researchers at the university, are leading the study. Both are involved with the school's "TransYouth Project," a longitudinal study of gender development and mental health of transgender children.
The TransYouth Project was featured in the Katie Couric documentary for National Geographic, Gender Revolution.
"Our current research study is recruiting children aged 3-12 who are transgender, gender nonconforming, and siblings of gender nonconforming children," the website for the project states.
"Our current research study is recruiting children aged 3-12 who are transgender, gender nonconforming,"
When my son was three, he didn't even know what his penis was for. How can a three year old know they are transgender without some influence from models in society (parents).
Children at this age are constructing themselves based on the rewards they receive, then transfer that reward into behaviour. If children act in accordance to their biological sex which then society punishes or ridicules the child for doing so, the child is sure to contribute acting like a boy or girl as wrong thus adapting the behaviour of the reward (opposite gender to sex or Neutrality) and not the punishment (biological sex). Concluding in misguided gender beliefs and a lack of understanding of biology. As hard as someone tries, they can never change their biological sex, and telling children that they can is setting the table for confusion when they begin puberty and young adulthood. This is not to mention hormone suppressants pre puberty that can have irreversible side effects.
Sure there are gender anomalies that happen and there is no denying this, but when we begin to construct the gender of small children without allowing them to discover themselves first, what precedent are we setting for the future? Leave nature alone and allow children to be just that, children.