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/>