Gender Intensification in Adolescence

Gender stereotype refers to a widely held notion regarding features that are deemed appropriate for a given gender, ie, male or female.^{1, 2} Stereotypes start to develop in pre-school age, and the range of stereotypes expands and becomes more flexible as one grows. ³ Gender role is a reflection of stereotype in day-to-day behavior. Gender identity is one’s perception of the self as being masculine, feminine, or androgynous, while gender typing is a broad construct that encompasses all the above concepts. It refers to any association of things, traits, roles, and activities with biological sex in ways that conform to cultural stereotypes.^{1, 2}

The period of adolescence is associated with gender intensification. Hill and Lynch proposed this hypothesis. It refers to increased gender stereotyping of beliefs and behaviors, and the evolution of more traditional gender identity in adolescence. According to this hypothesis, teens face an increased pressure to conform to culturally sanctioned gender roles. ⁴ Pubertal changes prompt adolescents to spend more time thinking about themselves in gender-linked ways. Individuals also face increased gender-typed demands from others during puberty. Research on its evidence suggests mixed results. However, when evident, it is more robust for girls, although they are less gender-typed than boys. It declines by late adolescence. Adolescents who are encouraged to question and explore nongender-typed options develop a more androgynous identity. Thus, social factors continue to exert their influence in promoting gender role flexibility, even in adolescence.1 Contemporary teenagers may not perceive these socialization pressures to the degree faced by earlier generations or may do so only in some domains. Figure 1 is a pictorial representation of gender intensification in adolescence. ⁵

There are various theories of gender development ranging from ones emphasizing purely biological basis, such as the “true gender self” model, ⁶ to the biopsychosocial model. ⁷ There are cognitive theories as well as the gender schema theory, which explains the influence of environmental and cognitive factors on shaping gender-typing from an information-processing perspective. As children pick up gender stereotypes, they organize their experiences into specific psychological structures called gender schemas that they use to interpret the world.^{1, 8} Dynamic systems theory is used to explain gender variation with time. It sheds light on temporal patterning and helps to understand how a system transforms from one state to another over time.^{9, 10} All theorists view biology as a scaffolding on which the psyche is built. ¹⁰

Figure 1.

Gender Intensification

Figure 2.

Bloom of Adolescence

Figure 2 illustrates gender identity development using the analogy of a plant with metaphorical representations. While the roots signify the biological basis, the weather conditions represent the environmental influences determining gender identity. The plant itself personifies the dynamic cognitive processes of an individual and the blooming flower represents the establishing gender identity in adolescence.