Thematic analysis of parent-child conversations about gender nonconformity.

Abstract

Gender-nonconforming (GNC) youth challenge the cultural assumption of the gender binary and are at risk for social rejection and negative appraisals from their peers. Parent-child conversations are a critical socialization context in which gender-related attitudes are formed. How do parents discuss gender nonconformity with their children, and what tactics do they use to support or challenge children's attitudes toward their GNC peers? To address this question, we employed a thematic analysis of conversations between a relatively homogenous sample of 30 dyads of parents (83% mothers; predominantly upper middle class and moderately liberal) and children (87% White, 18 girls, child M_age = 7.2 years, SD = 9.4 months) living in a progressive city in the United States. We asked dyads to discuss vignettes of GNC exemplars engaged in a variety of activities. Our analysis revealed four themes of conversational content and strategies used during the task, each of which represented varying levels of knowledge and experience with gender nonconformity. These themes included the following: conversations centered around the gender binary, including use of gender stereotypes and negative reactions to the exemplars; emphasizing the individual psychological motivations of exemplars and expressing gender-egalitarian attitudes; scaffolding children's perspective-taking through personalized examples and rhetorical questions; and acknowledging the reality of gender norms in the social world and deeply discussing the meaning of gender identity. Together these findings provide important insight into parents' role in socializing children's understanding of gender nonconformity and suggest pathways for facilitating inclusive attitudes toward GNC youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).