Trajectory of performing gender norms and its impacts on psychosocial health outcomes among Taiwanese adolescents

There is evidence linking performing gender norms to psychosocial and behavioral health status. However, no study has explored the trajectory of performing gender norms among adolescents and how it relates to their psychological and behavioral health outcomes. Our study addressed this gap in research. We utilized longitudinal data from the Taiwan Youth Project, spanning from 2000 to 2013, and constructed a gender-typed behavior and attitudinal scale to represent individual levels of gender performance. Outcomes were perceived unhealthiness, felt unhappiness, depressive symptomatology, and deviant behaviors. A gender-based trajectory model (GBTM) was created using multi-wave data, categorizing young adolescents into three groups, which include 10.3% who demonstrated persistently low gender-conforming behaviors, 46.1% who transitioned from low-to-high gender-conforming behaviors, and 43.5% who consistently exhibited high gender-conforming behaviors. Poisson regression analysis was employed to examine the relationship between the GBTM and outcomes. We found that persistently low (RR: 1.05; 95% CI: 1.00–1.09, p=0.030) and low-to-high gender-conforming behaviors (RR: 1.03; 95% CI: 1.00–1.10, p=0.032) were associated with a higher risk of depressive symptomatology compared to persistently high gender-conforming behaviors. Furthermore, low-to-high gender-conforming individuals had a significantly lower risk of deviant behaviors (RR: 0.97; 95% CI: 0.90–0.99, p=0.034) than those with consistently high gender-conforming behaviors. This study expands the current literature and provides novel evidence regarding longitudinal changes in gender performance in developing adolescents. Findings underscore potential adverse psychological and behavioral outcomes among individuals with persistently low-performing gender conformity.