Dr. Jenny Pearson, professor of sociology, recently co-authored a research article, “Family Socioeconomic Status in Adolescence and Gender Identification in Emerging Adulthood,” in Sociological Perspectives.
Dr. Pearson, alongside Lindsey Wilkinson and Dara Shifrer, conducted research on the role one’s socioeconomic status has on gender identification later in life.
Abstract:
“This study contributes to research exploring social factors shaping gender identification. Informed by structural symbolic interactionism, social identity theory and Levitt’s psychosocial theory of gender, we explore how a key aspect of external social structure — adolescent family socioeconomic status — is associated with gender identification in emerging adulthood. We examine whether correlates of family socioeconomic status, including adolescent family and educational experiences and friend and high school characteristics, are associated with a cisgender, binary transgender, nonbinary or gender unsure identification. Using data from High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), we find a positive association between adolescent family socioeconomic status and a nonbinary gender identification. Analyses indicate that educational and family experiences account for the largest percentage of the association between adolescent family socioeconomic status and nonbinary gender identification, potentially representing higher SES youths’ heightened access to middle- and upper-class cultural schemas and resources.”