Trajectory of performing gender norms and its impacts on psychosocial health outcomes among Taiwanese adolescents.

Abstract

There is evidence linking performing gender norms to psychosocial and behavioural health status. However, no study has explored the trajectory of performing gender norms among adolescents and how it relates to their psychological and behavioural health outcomes. Our study addressed this gap in research. We utilised longitudinal data from the Taiwan Youth Project, spanning from 2000 to 2013, and constructed a gender-typed behaviour and attitudinal scale to represent individual levels of gender performance. Outcomes were perceived unhealthiness, felt unhappiness, depressive symptomatology and deviant behaviours. A gender-based trajectory model (GBTM) was created using multi-wave data, categorising young adolescents into three groups, which include 10.3 per cent who demonstrated persistently low gender-conforming behaviours, 46.1 per cent who transitioned from low-to-high gender-conforming behaviours, and 43.5 per cent who consistently exhibited high gender-conforming behaviours. Poisson regression analysis was employed to examine the relationship between the GBTM and outcomes. We found that persistently low (RR: 1.05; 95 per cent CI: 1.00-1.09, p=0.030) and low-to-high gender-conforming behaviours (RR: 1.03; 95 per cent CI: 1.00-1.10, p=0.032) were associated with a higher risk of depressive symptomatology compared to persistently high gender-conforming behaviours. Furthermore, low-to-high gender-conforming individuals had a significantly lower risk of deviant behaviours (RR: 0.97; 95 per cent CI: 0.90-0.99, p=0.034) than those with consistently high gender-conforming behaviours. This study expands the current literature and provides novel evidence regarding longitudinal changes in gender performance in developing adolescents. Findings underscore potential adverse psychological and behavioural outcomes among individuals with persistently low-performing gender conformity.