Parents’ Influence on Infants’ Gender-Typed Toy Preferences

Gender socialization influences children at early ages, shaping their developing identities. The toys provided by parents deliver some of the earliest gender-based messages by encouraging children to engage in activities associated with, for example, dolls and trucks. In the current study, we measured the influence of parental socialization by assessing 5- and 12 ½-month-old infants’ exposure to dolls and trucks and by experimentally manipulating parents’ encouragement to play with these toys. We found that infants displayed gender-typical toy preferences at 12 ½, but not 5 months, a pattern characteristic of previous studies. However, brief encouragement by a parent to play with toys from each category was ineffective in altering infants’ preferences. Rather, the types of toys present in the home predicted preferences, suggesting that at-home exposure to toys may be influential in the development of toy preferences. These findings reveal that socialization processes may indeed play a role in the formation of early gender-typical toy preferences and highlight the importance of equal toy exposure during infancy to ensure optimal development.     

Changing Jobs and Changing Chores? The Longitudinal Association of Women’s and Men’s Occupational Gender-Atypicality and Couples’ Housework Performance

Prior research linking occupational sex composition (the proportion of women in an occupation) to housework has yielded conflicting results and relies exclusively on cross-sectional data. The present article extends scholarship on the gendered division of household labor by using longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) 1981–2013 to assess how changes in occupational sex composition alter heterosexual married couples’ housework performance over time. I find that either spouse’s gender-atypical employment (e.g., husband’s employment in a predominately female job) is associated with gender-atypical housework performance by both spouses (e.g., higher housework hours for the husband and fewer hours for the wife). The association of women’s occupational sex composition with housework is driven by changes in individual women’s occupations and both spouses’ housework over time. In contrast, the association of men’s occupational sex composition with housework is driven by differences between different couples, not by within-couple change over time. Thus, fundamentally different causal mechanisms link women’s and men’s occupational sex composition to couples’ housework performance, and only for women are longitudinal changes in occupational sex composition associated with changes in housework. These findings have important implications for understanding occupation and housework as domains of gender performance.     

Development and Validation of the Female Muscularity Scale

Socially promoted physical appearance ideals for women place increasing importance on muscularity, resulting in growing muscularity concerns among traditional college-age women. To date, however, instruments for assessing the type of muscularity concerns reported by women are lacking. The aim of the present study was therefore to develop such a scale and examine its psychometric properties among a sample of young women. Findings from an exploratory factor analysis (n = 235) and a confirmatory factor analysis (n = 130) revealed a two-factor structure, including a five-item Attitudes subscale (α = .89) and a five-item Behaviors subscale (α = .90), which were moderately correlated, r = .50. In addition, the scale demonstrated good 2-week test-retest reliability (r = .76), and the subscales revealed moderate-to-large associations with body image concerns, drive for thinness, and exercise engagement, indicating concurrent validity. Thus the new Female Muscularity Scale is a useful and promising tool for assessing muscularity concerns among young women, and it may help toward understanding the role of pressures to achieve a toned body in the development of body image, eating, and exercise disorders.     

Attitudes Toward and Beliefs about Transgender Youth: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between the United States and India

Using an internet-based survey, we examined attitudes toward transgender youth in the United States and India, two cultures with differences in conceptualizations of gender and treatment of transgender individuals in society, law, and religion. We found generally positive attitudes toward transgender youth in our U.S. (n = 218), but moderately negative ones in our Indian (n = 217), sample. Consistent with the literature on prejudice against transgender adults in many Western societies, general social conservatism in the form of religious beliefs and political ideology, gender-specific conservatism in the form of gender binary belief, and endorsement of environmental rather than biological causes of transgender identity were the best predictors of U.S. participants’ attitudes, although personal contact with gender and sexual minorities also played a role at the bivariate level. These findings suggest that the processes underlying prejudice against transgender youth are similar to those that foster adult-directed transphobia in that cultural context. In contrast, religion-based disapproval and environmental causal attributions were the best predictors of Indian respondents’ attitudes, whereas gender binary belief played only a minor role, and political conservatism and personal contact no role at all. Our regression analyses accounted for considerably more of the variability in U.S. than in Indian participants’ attitudes, highlighting the need for additional (qualitative) work to identify the factors that promote transprejudice in India. We discuss these findings in light of cross-cultural differences between the two countries in terms of our predictors and consider implications for efforts to reduce prejudice against transgender youth.     

Temperament,Repetitive Negative Thinking,and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescence: a Prospective Study

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a transdiagnostic vulnerability factor, involved in the maintenance of a variety of emotional problems. Recently, the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire – Child version (PTQ-C) was developed as a content-independent measure of RNT in children and adolescents. The current study investigated the reliability and predictive validity of the PTQ-C and examined temperament as a developmental predictor of RNT. For this end, 701 early adolescents completed measures of RNT, depressive symptoms, stressors, and temperament, both at baseline and after three months. First, the factor structure of the PTQ-C was investigated by comparing a one-factor model and a three-factor higher-order model using confirmatory factor analyses. Both models showed good fit to the data, but the more parsimonious one-factor model was retained. Internal consistency, as measured by cronbach’s alpha and (hierarchical) omega, was found to be excellent for the total scale. Second, associations with depressive symptom levels were examined. RNT predicted both concurrent and prospective symptom levels, even when taking into account baseline depressive symptoms. RNT was further shown to act as a moderator strengthening the link between stress and levels of depressive symptoms, both concurrently and prospectively. Finally, associations with temperament were explored by investigating the mediating role of RNT in the association between temperament dimensions and depressive symptoms. One indirect effect was found, with low effortful control predicting increases in depressive symptoms through heightened levels of RNT. The current study supports the PTQ-C as a useful and psychometrically sound measure of dysfunctional RNT that may facilitate research on emotional problems in child and adolescent samples.     

Multidimensionality of Youth Psychopathic Traits: Validation and Future Directions

The seven articles featured in this Special Section on “Child Psychopathic Traits for Specifying Conduct Disorder” collectively prosecute an important tension in the field: despite evidence that psychopathic traits in children, adolescent, and adults are multidimensional, callous-unemotional (CU) traits have evolved to nearly eclipse the construct of youth psychopathic traits. That is, does inclusion of grandiosity and impulsivity, and related psychopathic constructs improve predictive models? Employing a rich array of methods, these studies converged to suggest that using the entire constellation of psychopathic traits significantly improved predictions of key criteria. Crucially, predictions were consistent across development, multiple external criteria, and diversely recruited samples (e.g., community, incarcerated). From a developmental psychopathology framework (Cicchetti 2008), I synthesize the theoretical and empirical implications of these studies and offer perspectives on future directions. In particular, there is an urgent need to elucidate mechanisms from psychopathic traits to important clinical, public health, and functional outcomes; identification of potential causal processes is necessary to establish the validity of psychopathic traits and to ultimately innovate intervention and prevention efforts.     

Are Callous Unemotional (CU) Traits Enough?

A guiding question for this special section, sparked by the increasing number of studies on callous –unemotional traits (CU traits) and the DSM-5 Limited Prosocial Emotion (LPE) specifier, is whether CU traits are enough to identify a clinically meaningful subgroup of youth with conduct problems or whether other psychopathic traits contribute. Seven empirical papers and two commentary papers address this question to varying degrees and in different ways with some papers “competing” various models against one another along with other papers investigating distinct correlates of the psychopathy factors. Findings across the papers suggest that there could be benefits to examining the broader construct of psychopathy in addition to examining its underpinning dimensions rather than CU traits alone. Two commentary papers also shed light on the importance of psychopathic traits in children with Conduct Disorder (CD) and provide insights for future work on this topic. It is hoped that the articles and commentary will generate new ideas for research and practice that could have implications for the treatment of those individuals with CD and psychopathic traits.     

Dimensional Personality Traits Broadly and Selectively Associated with Normative Externalizing Behavior

This study aimed to distinguish personality traits that are widely associated with several types of externalizing behaviors from personality traits that are more selectively associated with one or only a few specific types of externalizing behavior. A wide range of externalizing behaviors (e.g. alcohol and drug use, risky driving, aggressive acts, sexual promiscuity and relationship infidelity, academic misconduct) typical among an undergraduate population (N?=?257) were examined along with a range of personality traits measured using the Section III personality model for the DSM-5. We found that externalizing behavior was best associated with the domain level trait Antagonism and, to a lesser degree, Disinhibition. Antagonism’s association with problematic behavior was primarily accounted for by the facet trait Deceitfulness. Deceitfulness was found to be associated with a wide range of behaviors including relationship infidelity, theft, aggressive acts, and drug and alcohol use. Associations between Disinhibition and problem behavior, especially risky driving and poor work or school performance, were best accounted for by the Irresponsibility facet, as opposed to the Impulsivity or Distractibility facet traits. This comprehensive multivariate approach is important for a more complete understanding of the complex relationship that exists between personality traits and externalizing behavior. A better understanding of factors precipitating externalizing behavior could ultimately lead to an increased ability to target interventions to individuals most susceptible to engage in problematic behavior.     

Comparing Different Approaches for Subtyping Children with Conduct Problems: Callous-Unemotional Traits Only Versus the Multidimensional Psychopathy Construct

The aim of this study was to compare two youth psychopathy models (i.e., callous-unemotional versus multidimensional model) in their ability to predict future and stable conduct problems (CP). At baseline, mothers and fathers of 321 boys and 369 girls (ages 7–12) completed measures that tap callous-unemotional and other psychopathic traits. Parent-reported CP was collected at baseline and at 6- and 12 month follow-ups. Children were assigned to mutually exclusive groups based on their levels of CP and psychopathic traits. Children with CP who manifested callous-unemotional traits (Callous-Unemotional?+?CP) were occasionally at risk for future and stable CP. Yet, across gender, children with CP scoring high on all psychopathic trait dimensions (Psychopathic Personality?+?CP) showed the most robust and highest risk for future and stable CP. Also, Callous-Unemotional?+?CP children, and children who were only high in CP, often were at similar risk for future CP. The findings suggest that the callous-unemotional model is less sufficient than the multidimensional model in predicting future and stable CP. This can be concluded for both boys and girls and calls for more research reconsidering the multidimensional nature of psychopathy for CP subtyping purposes.