Editing Gender identity (section)

===Social and environmental factors===

In 1955, John Money proposed that gender identity was malleable and determined by whether a child was raised as male or female in early childhood.<ref name="pmid13260820">{{cite journal | vauthors = Money J, Hampson JG, Hampson JL | title = An examination of some basic sexual concepts: the evidence of human hermaphroditism | journal = Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital | volume = 97 | issue = 4 | pages = 301–19 | date = October 1955 | pmid = 13260820 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7-IaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA301 | access-date = 6 December 2022 | archive-date = 6 December 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221206034531/https://books.google.com/books?id=7-IaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA301 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="GDDSD">{{cite book | vauthors = Kreukels BP, Steensma TD, de Vries AL |title=Gender dysphoria and disorders of sex development: progress in care and knowledge |date=2014 |publisher=Springer |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4614-7441-8}}</ref> Money's hypothesis has since been discredited,<ref name="GDDSD"/><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Fausto-Sterling A |title=Sexing the body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality |date=2000 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-0-465-07713-7 |edition=1st}}</ref> but scholars have continued to study the effect of social factors on gender identity formation.<ref name="GDDSD"/> In the 1960s and 1970s, factors such as the absence of a father, a mother's wish for a daughter, or parental reinforcement patterns were suggested as influences; more recent theories suggesting that parental [[psychopathology]] might partly influence gender identity formation have received only minimal empirical evidence,<ref name="GDDSD"/> with a 2004 article noting that "solid evidence for the importance of postnatal social factors is lacking."<ref name="pmid15724806">{{cite journal | vauthors = Swaab DF | title = Sexual differentiation of the human brain: relevance for gender identity, transsexualism and sexual orientation | journal = Gynecological Endocrinology | volume = 19 | issue = 6 | pages = 301–12 | date = December 2004 | pmid = 15724806 | doi = 10.1080/09513590400018231 | s2cid = 1410435 | quote = "...direct effects of testosterone on the developing fetal brain are of major importance for the development of male gender identity and male heterosexual orientation. Solid evidence for the importance of postnatal social factors is lacking." }}</ref> A 2008 study found that the parents of [[Gender dysphoria|gender-dysphoric]] children showed no signs of psychopathological issues aside from mild depression in the mothers.<ref name="pmid18981931">{{cite journal | vauthors = Wallien MS, Cohen-Kettenis PT | title = Psychosexual outcome of gender-dysphoric children | journal = Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry | volume = 47 | issue = 12 | pages = 1413–23 | date = December 2008 | pmid = 18981931 | doi = 10.1097/CHI.0b013e31818956b9 }}</ref> It has also been suggested that the attitudes of the child's parents may affect the child's gender identity, although evidence is minimal.<ref name="pmid6488962">{{cite journal | vauthors = Weinraub M, Clemens LP, Sockloff A, Ethridge T, Gracely E, Myers B | title = The development of sex role stereotypes in the third year: relationships to gender labeling, gender identity, sex-typed toy preference, and family characteristics | journal = Child Development | volume = 55 | issue = 4 | pages = 1493–503 | date = August 1984 | pmid = 6488962 | doi = 10.2307/1130019| jstor = 1130019 | quote = Previous investigators have failed to observe a relationship between parental attitudes and children's early sex role acquisition... }}</ref>

====Parental establishment of gender roles====
Parents who do not support gender nonconformity are more likely to have children with firmer and stricter views on gender identity and gender roles.<ref name="Oswalt"/> Recent literature suggests a trend towards less well-defined gender roles and identities, as studies of the parental association ("coding") of toys as masculine, feminine, or neutral indicate that parents increasingly code kitchens and in some cases dolls as neutral rather than exclusively feminine.<ref name="Kane">{{cite book| vauthors = Spade J |url= https://archive.org/details/kaleidoscopeofge0000unse_c1n2/page/177 |title=The Kaleidoscope of Gender|date=2010|publisher=Sage|isbn=978-1-4129-7906-1|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/kaleidoscopeofge0000unse_c1n2/page/177 177–84]}}</ref> However, Emily Kane found that many parents still showed negative responses to items, activities, or attributes that were considered feminine, such as domestic skills, nurturance, and empathy.<ref name=Kane /> Research has indicated that many parents attempt to define gender for their sons in a manner that distances the sons from femininity,<ref name=Kane /> with Kane stating that "the parental boundary maintenance work evident for sons represents a crucial obstacle limiting boys' options, separating boys from girls, devaluing activities marked as feminine for both boys and girls, and thus bolstering gender inequality and heteronormativity."<ref name=Kane />

Many parents form gendered expectations for their child before it is even born, after determining the child's sex through technology such as [[ultrasound]]. The child thus is born to a gender-specific name, games, and even ambitions.<ref name="Ghosh"/> Once the child's sex is determined, most children are raised to in accordance with it, fitting a male or female gender role defined partly by the parents.

When considering the parents' social class, lower-class families typically hold traditional gender roles, where the father works and the mother, who may only work out of financial necessity, still takes care of the household. However, middle-class "professional" couples typically negotiate the division of labor and hold an egalitarian ideology. These different views on gender can shape the child's understanding of gender as well as the child's development of gender.<ref name="Halpern">{{cite journal | vauthors = Halpern HP, Perry-Jenkins M | title = Parents' Gender Ideology and Gendered Behavior as Predictors of Children's Gender-Role Attitudes: A Longitudinal Exploration | journal = Sex Roles | volume = 74 | issue = 11 | pages = 527–542 | date = May 2016 | pmid = 27445431 | pmc = 4945126 | doi = 10.1007/s11199-015-0539-0 }}</ref>

A study conducted by Hillary Halpern<ref name="Halpern" /> demonstrated that parental gender behaviors, rather than beliefs, are better predictors of a child's attitude on gender. A mother's behavior was especially influential on a child's assumptions of the child's own gender. For example, mothers who practiced more traditional behaviors around their children resulted in the son displaying fewer stereotypes of male roles while the daughter displayed more stereotypes of female roles. No correlation was found between a father's behavior and his children's knowledge of stereotypes of their own gender. Fathers who held the belief of equality between the sexes had children, especially sons, who displayed fewer preconceptions of their opposite gender.