Children's Facial Emotional Expressions to Gender-Nonconforming Hypothetical Peers.

Prior studies suggested that children's appraisals of gender-nonconforming, compared with gender-conforming, peers are less positive, particularly for gender-nonconforming boys. To gauge appraisals, most prior studies used verbal reports, which provide explicit measures. In contrast, the current stu...

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Published in:Archives of Sexual Behavior Vol. 54; no. 4; pp. 1361 - 1374
Main Authors: Kwan, Karen Man Wa, Isani, Simran, James, Haley J., Nabbijohn, A. Natisha, MacMullin, Laura N., Shi, Sylvia Yun, Poon, Bill Hung Piu, Peragine, Diana E., Wong, Wang Ivy, VanderLaan, Doug P.
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Apr2025
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Apr2025
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      pub: Springer Nature
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        atl: Children's Facial Emotional Expressions to Gender-Nonconforming Hypothetical Peers.
      aug:
        au:
          Kwan, Karen Man Wa
          Isani, Simran
          James, Haley J.
          Nabbijohn, A. Natisha
          MacMullin, Laura N.
          Shi, Sylvia Yun
          Poon, Bill Hung Piu
          Peragine, Diana E.
          Wong, Wang Ivy
          VanderLaan, Doug P.
        affil:
          https://ror.org/0030zas98 Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
          https://ror.org/03dbr7087 Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, L5L 1C6, Mississauga, ON, Canada
          https://ror.org/01r7awg59 Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
          https://ror.org/0217hb928 Department of Psychology, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, USA
          https://ror.org/00t33hh48 Gender Studies Programme and Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong
          Independent Researcher, Kowloon, Hong Kong
          https://ror.org/03e71c577 Child and Youth Psychiatry, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
      su:
        Children
        Facial expression
        Self-expression
        Peers
        Gender nonconformity
      sug:
        subj:
          Children
          Facial expression
          Self-expression
          Peers
          Gender nonconformity
      keyword:
        Emotion
        Facial expressions
        Peer appraisal
        Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology
        Emotion
        Facial expressions
        Peer appraisal
        Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Psychology
      ab: Prior studies suggested that children's appraisals of gender-nonconforming, compared with gender-conforming, peers are less positive, particularly for gender-nonconforming boys. To gauge appraisals, most prior studies used verbal reports, which provide explicit measures. In contrast, the current study explored facial emotional expressions, which can potentially be an objective and implicit measure to inform the emotional component of appraisals. We examined 4-, 5-, 8-, and 9-year-olds in Hong Kong (n = 309) and Canada (n = 296) (N = 605; 303 boys, 302 girls). Children's faces were video-recorded while viewing four vignettes of hypothetical gender-conforming and gender-nonconforming boy and girl targets in random order. Targets were shown as having gendered preferences in the domains of toys, activities, clothing and hairstyle, and playmates. FaceReader software was used to perform automated coding of six basic facial emotional expressions: angry, disgusted, happy, sad, scared, and surprised. Children showed more scared emotion toward the hypothetical gender-nonconforming boy target when compared with the gender-conforming boy target. Also, this elevation in scared emotion was correlated with children verbally reporting that they perceived the gender-nonconforming boy as being less happy relative to the gender-conforming boy. These results suggest that, during a brief initial exposure to a target peer, gender nonconformity in boy peers was related to a relatively heightened fear response in early and middle childhood. Further, facial emotional expressions can be used to gain insights regarding the emotional component of children's appraisals of varying peer gender presentations, and these emotional responses can be associated with certain other aspects of their appraisals.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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