From 1978 through 1995, a sex ratio of 6.6:1 of
boys to girls (N = 275) was observed for children referred to a specificity
clinic for gender identity disorder. This article attempts to evaluate several
hypotheses regarding the marked sex disparity in referral rates.
The sexes did not differ on four demographic
variables (age at referral, IQ, and parent's social class and marital status)
and on five indices of general behavior problems on the Child Behavior
Checklist; in addition, there was only equivocal evidence that boys with
gender identity disorder had significantly poorer peer relations than girls
with gender identity disorder.
Although the percentage of boys and girls who
met the complete DSM-III-R criteria for gender identity disorder was
comparable, other measures of sex-typed behavior showed that the girls had
more extreme cross-gender behavior than the boys. Coupled with external
evidence that cross-gender behavior is less tolerated in boys than in girls by
both peers and adults, it is concluded that social factors partly account for
the sex difference in referral rates. Girls appear to require a higher
threshold than boys for cross-gender behavior before they are referred for
clinical assessment.
Citation: J Abnorm Child
Psychol 1997 Jun;25(3):217-27 an article published
on the Internet by PubMed <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/>
