The Gender Self-Report: A Multidimensional Gender Characterization Tool for Gender-Diverse and Cisgender Youth and Adults

John F. Strang*, Gregory L. Wallace, Jacob J. Michaelson, Abigail L. Fischbach, Taylor R. Thomas, Allison Jack, Jerry Shen, Diane Chen, Andrew Freeman, Megan Knauss, Blythe A. Corbett, Lauren Kenworthy, Amy C. Tishelman, Laura Willing, Goldie A. McQuaid, Eric E. Nelson, Russell B. Toomey, Jenifer K. McGuire, Jessica N. Fish, Scott Farrell LeibowitzLeena Nahata, Laura G. Anthony, Graciela Slesaransky-Poe, Lawrence D’Angelo, Ann Clawson, Amber D. Song, Connor Grannis, Eleonora Sadikova, Kevin A. Pelphrey, Gendaar Consortium, Michael Mancilla, Lucy S. McClellan, Kelsey D. Csumitta, Molly R. Winchenbach, Amrita Jilla, Farrokh Alemi, Ji Seung Yang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Gender identity is a core component of human experience, critical to account for in broad health, development, psychosocial research, and clinical practice. Yet, the psychometric characterization of gender has been impeded due to challenges in modeling the myriad gender selfdescriptors, statistical power limitations related to multigroup analyses, and equity-related concerns regarding the accessibility of complex gender terminology. Therefore, this initiative employed an iterative multi-community-driven process to develop the Gender Self-Report (GSR), a multidimensional gender characterization tool, accessible to youth and adults, nonautistic and autistic people, and gender-diverse and cisgender individuals. In Study 1, the GSR was administered to 1,654 individuals, sampled through seven diversified recruitments to be representative across age (10–77 years), gender and sexuality diversity (∼33% each gender diverse, cisgender sexual minority, cisgender heterosexual), and autism status (>33% autistic). A random half-split subsample was subjected to exploratory factor analytics, followed by confirmatory analytics in the full sample. Two stable factors emerged: Nonbinary Gender Diversity and Female–Male Continuum (FMC). FMC was transformed to Binary Gender Diversity based on designated sex at birth to reduce collinearity with designated sex at birth. Differential item functioning by age and autism status was employed to reduce item–response bias. Factors were internally reliable. Study 2 demonstrated the construct, convergent, and ecological validity of GSR factors. Of the 30 hypothesized validation comparisons, 26 were confirmed. The GSR provides a community-developed gender advocacy tool with 30 self-report items that avoid complex gender-related “insider” language and characterize diverse populations across continuous multidimensional binary and nonbinary gender traits.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)886-900
Number of pages15
JournalAmerican Psychologist
Volume78
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 30 2023

Funding

This research was supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Children\u2019s National (UL1TR001876), the National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award (KL2TR001877, John F. Strang), the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH100028, Kevin A. Pelphrey), the National Human Genome Research Institute (R01HG012697), and the Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation. The authors have no conflicts of interest. Due to the nature of the consents, the entire data set is not publicly available. Validation hypotheses were made and preregistered through Open Science Framework following Study 1 prior to Study 2 analyses: https://osf.io/3u5mv/?view_only=273f49d493974ee897ca419fcef d5219.

Keywords

  • autism
  • gender identity
  • measurement
  • nonbinary
  • transgender

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology

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