Endorsement of gender stereotypes in gender diverse and cisgender adolescents and their parents

Previous work has documented adolescents' gender stereotype endorsement, or the extent to which one believes men or women should embody certain traits. However, understanding of gender stereotype endorsement in gender diverse adolescents - those who identify with a gender different from their assigned sex at birth - is limited. Gender diverse adolescents' unique lived experiences with gender raise the question of whether they endorse gender stereotypes with the same frequency as cisgender adolescents. In this study, we investigated two primary research questions: (1) if gender diverse (N = 150) and cisgender (N = 174) adolescents (13 - 17 years) or their parents differed from one another in their endorsement of gender stereotypes; (2) the relationship between adolescents' and their parents' endorsement of gender stereotypes, and adolescents' predictions of their parents' endorsement of stereotypes. We found (1) no significant differences between gender diverse and cisgender adolescents in endorsement of gender stereotypes, perceptions of their parents' gender stereotype endorsement, and parents' gender stereotype endorsement, though parents endorsed stereotypes less than adolescents; and (2) adolescents' endorsement of gender stereotypes showed a weak positive association with their parents' gender stereotypes and the adolescents' predictions of their parents' stereotype endorsement, though neither correlation was significant. These results suggest that, in our sample, explicit stereotype endorsement was rare among gender diverse and cisgender adolescents and their parents.