RT Book, Section
A1 Zucker, Kenneth J.
A2 Rudolph, Colin D.
A2 Rudolph, Abraham M.
A2 Lister, George E.
A2 First, Lewis R.
A2 Gershon, Anne A.
SR Print(0)
ID 6738771
T1 Chapter 90. Gender Identity and Sexual Behavior
T2 Rudolph's Pediatrics, 22e
YR 2011
FD 2011
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-149723-7
LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=6738771
RD 2024/04/24
AB Gender  identity  has  both  a  cognitive  component  and  an  affective  component.  There  is  now  considerable  evidence  that  by  the  age  of  2  to  4  years,  children  have  a  rudimentary  cognitive  understanding  of  their  gender  identity.  They  are,  for  example,  able  to  self-label  as  a  boy  or  as  a  girl.  Although  it  is  normative  for  children  in  this  age  range  to  self-label  correctly,  a  more  sophisticated  cognitive  understanding  of  gender  is  lacking.  A  girl,  for  example,  who  can  correctly  self-label  as  a  girl  might  readily  declare  that  she  will  be  a  daddy  (or  even  a  giraffe)  when  she  grows  up.  With  cognitive  maturity,  however,  children  eventually  master  the  notion  that  gender  is  an  invariant  part  of  the  self.  Coinciding  with  a  cognitive-developmental  understanding  of  gender,  there  is  a  corresponding  affective  pride  in  gender  identity  self-labeling  in  that  children  appear  to  value  themselves  as  being  a  boy  or  being  a  girl,  and  there  is  a  tendency  to  overvalue  other  members  of  one’s  sex  and  devalue  members  of  the  other  sex—a  type  of  “in-group  vs  out-group  bias.”1,2