Gendered Self-Perceptions, Stereotype Alignment, and Mental Health Predictors in Gender Non-Conforming Adults

Abstract

Past literature indicates that cisgender individuals’ internal perceptions of themselves, or self-representations, shift from moment-to-moment contexts on dimensions of gender. At times when these self-representations align with norms and stereotypes for cisgender individuals’ own binary gender identity, they concurrently report better mental health outcomes. However—reflecting a wider neglect of gender-diverse samples across research—this relationship has not been studied in a gender-diverse sample. The present study seeks to build off prior in-lab research conducted with a gender-conforming sample by testing relationships between binary norms and stereotypes and the self-representations of nonbinary and gender non-conforming participants. We find no alignment between self-representations in a gender-diverse sample and binary norms and stereotypes. Additionally, we find that the most significant predictor of mental health outcomes for this sample across a three week survey period was the reported similarity of their self-representation to most other nonbinary and gender non-conforming people. Our results indicate that gender-diverse individuals differ from gender-conforming individuals in their relationship to binary norms and stereotypes, as well as predictors of mental health outcomes, in significant ways that warrant further study.