Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T03:52:21.475Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Specific Cross-Gender Behaviour in Boyhood and Later Homosexual Orientation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

R. Green*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles
C. W. Roberts
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Department of Statistics, Iowa State University
K. Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and School of Social Work and Community Planning, University of Maryland
M. Goodman
Affiliation:
School of Welfare, State University of New York at Stony Brook
A. Mixon
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, State University of New York at Stony Brook
*
760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, California 90024, USA

Extract

Data from a group of males aged 13 to 23, who as children exhibited extensive cross-gender behaviour, was analysed. In boyhood they frequently played with dress-up dolls, role-played as females, dressed in girls' clothes, stated the wish to be girls, primarily had girls as friends, and avoided rough-and-tumble play. The majority of the group evolved a bisexual or homosexual orientation; two types of behaviour, boyhood doll play and female role-playing, were found to be associated with later homosexual orientation. The findings suggest developmental associations between specific types of boyhood cross-gender behaviour and the objects of later sexual arousal.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bell, A. P., Weinberg, M. S., & Hammersmith, S. K. (1981) Sexual Preference: Its Development in Men and Women. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Benjamin, H. (1966) The Transsexual Phenomenon. New York: Julian Press.Google Scholar
Green, R. (1974) Sexual Identity Conflict in Children and Adults. New York: Basic; London: Gerald Duckworth; Baltimore: Penguin.Google Scholar
Green, R. (1976) One hundred and ten feminine and masculine boys: behavioral contrasts and demographic similarities. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 5, 425446.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, R. (1985) Gender identity in childhood and later sexual orientation: Follow-up of 78 males. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 339341.Google Scholar
Green, R. (1987) The “Sissy Boy Syndrome” and the Development of Homosexuality. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Harry, J. (1982) Gay Children Grown Up: Gender Culture and Gender Deviance. New York: Pracger.Google Scholar
Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., & Martin, C. E. (1948) Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.Google Scholar
Lebovitz, P. (1972) Feminine behavior in boys. Aspects of its outcome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 12831289.Google Scholar
Prince, V. & Bentler, P. (1972) Survey of504cases of transvestism. Psychological Reports, 31, 903917.Google Scholar
Saghir, M. & Robins, E. (1973) Male and Female Homosexuality. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.Google Scholar
Whitam, F. (1977) Childhood indicators of male homosexuality. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 6, 8996.Google Scholar
Zuger, B. (1984) Early effeminate behaviours in boys: outcome and significance for homosexuality. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 172, 9097.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.