Kids Who Don’t Gender Conform Are at Higher Risk of Abuse

Fitting in can be a tough business for kids, especially for the boy who wants to play dress-up and the girl with the short haircut. Now a new study finds that children who display such gender non-conformity — activity choices, interests and pretend play that don’t conform with what’s expected of their gender — are more likely to suffer physical, psychological and sexual abuse and experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by early adulthood.

The abuse is most often perpetrated by parents or other adults in the household, the study found. And as many as 1 in 10 kids display gender non-conformity before age 11. It’s not clear why gender non-conforming kids suffer more abuse, but it may have to do with parents’ discomfort with their behavior. As lead author Andrea Roberts, a research associate in the department of society, human development and health at Harvard School of Public Health, told USA Today, parents “may have the idea, ‘If I force him not to be that way, he won’t be like that as an adult.’”

Interestingly, however, Roberts also noted that children are likely to display a wide variety of behaviors that have no connection to their future sexual orientation: 85% of gender-non-conforming children in the study were heterosexual in adulthood.

Yet boys who displayed gender non-conformity before age 11 were nearly three times as likely to suffer sexual abuse in childhood, compared with gender-typical boys. Non-conforming girls were 60% more likely to be abused sexually than conforming girls. Rates of physical and psychological abuse among non-conforming kids were similar across genders.

Harvard researchers gathered the data by administering childhood behavior questionnaires among nearly 9,000 young adults ages 17 to 27, who were enrolled in 1996 in the long-term Growing Up Today study. The questionnaires, given in 2007, asked participants to recall their childhood experiences: their favorite games and toys, media characters they had imitated or admired, and whether they took male or female roles in pretend play. The participants were also asked about physical, sexual and emotional abuse in childhood, and were screened for PTSD.

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