Development of gender identity during adolescence: perspectives from Jordanian and Syrian youth

ABSTRACT

The current study applied a life-course approach with 64 Jordanian and Syrian adolescents (15–19 years old) to understand when and how sociocultural norms are internalized and shaped the gender identity of adolescents passing from childhood to adulthood. The study participants reflected on important life events that shaped their sexual and gender identity in in-depth interviews using visual timelines. Data were analysed using narrative qualitative methods. The participants described the end of childhood as an essential transition point in forming gender-roles and identity. Normative gender role expectations were internalized through two social processes: nature vs. nurture and the public sphere is for men, while the private sphere is for women. Through these processes, the participants gradually adopted stereotypical adult gender roles culturally present in Jordan. The adolescents highlighted gender inequalities and double social standards as they evaluated the impact of restrictive gender norms on the evolution of their stereotypical gender roles.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• gender inequality
• gender norms
• adolescent growth and development
• Syrian refugees
• Jordan

Introduction

Gender identities are developed, refined, and learned through socialization processes that orchestrate multidirectional interactions between individuals’ inner meanings of gender norms and roles on one side and the social environment, including parents, peers, and other social systems, on the other side (John & Edmeades, 2017). Empirical research has found that gender self-conception and the adoption of feminine and masculine traits often occur during adolescence as opposed to younger ages (Klaczynski et al., 2020). Adolescence is thus a critical time for the development of gender identity. Erikson (1968) describes adolescence as a ‘conscious period’ and ‘almost a way of life between childhood and adulthood’ (P: 128) that lays the foundation for adulthood and is intrinsic to an individual’s general sense of well-being. The formation of ‘gender identity’ during adolescence is crucial to establishing a coherent, stable image of the ‘self’ that is central to one’s individual identity (Erikson, 1968).

While adolescence is a period during which gender self-conception intensifies, it is also a period when individuals begin to feel the influence of family, community, institutions, and policies that create restrictive social norms and enforce unequal distribution of power and privilege among genders (Heise et al., 2019; John & Edmeades, 2017). The long-term impact of social norms and adolescent experiences in shaping gender identity and gender-related behaviour over the life course is well documented. A comparative analysis of both children’s and adolescents’ gender indicators from 40 low-income and middle-income countries in the Asia-Pacific region suggested that marked gender inequalities consistently emerge and become acutely noticeable for the first time during adolescence (Kennedy et al., 2020), whereas typical masculine and feminine gender expressions remain relatively unchanged for men and women from adolescence into adulthood (Shakya et al., 2019).

From a health perspective, gender-related attitudes and adolescent experiences predict individuals’ health and well-being during adulthood (Baird et al., 2019) and further into later adulthood (Shakya et al., 2019). For example, in Bangladesh and Ethiopia, adolescents’ perceptions of restrictive gender attitudes and norms were strongly associated with several indicators of physical health, self-reported health, psychological well-being, and self-esteem (Baird et al., 2019). In India, perceived gender typicality was linked to higher self-esteem, lower depression, and higher peer-social competence in older adolescents. Experiencing gender atypicality in combination with espousing strong sexist beliefs was associated with increased depression and aggression during adolescence (Menon & Hannah-Fisher, 2019).

Transforming restrictive social norms to increase gender equality has become an important focus of global health programming (Heise et al., 2019; Heymann et al., 2019), with much attention placed on the need to better understand the socialization process during adolescence (John & Edmeades, 2017). While much literature focuses on the harmful manifestations of inequitable gender roles and attitudes in Arab Muslim-majority settings (El Kharouf & Daoud, 2019; Krafft et al., 2021; Obermeyer et al., 2015; Syed et al., 2018), there is little research on how gender roles evolve as children transition into adolescence within this type of environment. To identify potential points for improvement and transformation, it is necessary to first understand where and how differences in expected gender roles and social norms are internalized and contribute to shaping the gender identity of adolescents.

Gender equality is a fundamental human right. While some countries have made remarkable progress towards gender equality in the recent decades, Jordan continues to lag behind most of the world. Jordan ranked at the bottom of the Global Gender Gap Index in 2020, i.e. 138th out of 149 countries, as measured through gender-related disparities in health and survival, educational attainment, economic participation, opportunity, and political empowerment (World Economic Forum, 2020). As of 2021, the estimated population in Jordan was a little above 11 million inhabitants (Department of Statistics, 2022), of which 67.5% were registered Syrian refugees (Operational Data Portal - Refugee Situation, 2021). Jordan has one of the youngest populations in the world, with 53% under the age of 24 and 20% aged between 15 and 24 years (IndexMundi, 2021).

It is a Middle Eastern Arab country that has a majority of centrist Sunni Muslim communities that are relatively socially conservative. Across the Middle East, discussing sexuality and reproductive issues is a major cultural and social taboo (Al Zaabi et al., 2022; Alomair et al., 2022b). Open dialogues about sexual development and reproductive health are systematically disallowed, particularly for girls and women (El Ayoubi et al., 2021; Othman et al., 2022), representing a substantial barrier to gender equality (Abu Habib & Abdel Khalik, 2021) and reproductive and sexual well-being (Alomair et al., 2022a; Fahme et al., 2021).

The institution of the family tends to be prominent in gender identity formation in Middle Eastern cultures. We must achieve a better understanding of the complex sociocultural processes that shape gender identity and behaviours among adolescents and emerging adults to successfully target these socialization processes that lead to an internalization of norms and gender-role expectations resulting in gender inequality. Therefore, this study aims to identify how cultural and social influences shape the evolution of gender identity as experienced, perceived, and understood by Syrian and Jordanian adolescents living in Jordan.

Materials and methods

This study applied a narrative life-course methodology using a visual timeline (Heikkinen, 2011), as described in the study’s detailed protocol (Gausman et al., 2019), to explore the transition of Syrian and Jordanian adolescents through adolescence. Male and female participants aged between 15 and 19 years were recruited by convenience through local community development centres in Amman, Irbid, Mafraq, and Zarqa for individual in-depth interviews. At the beginning of the interview, the participants were asked to create a brief visual timeline of their life story using a pen and paper and divide their timeline into chapters, briefly describing the important characteristics of each chapter. The data collector used this visual timeline as a baseline to start a flexible iterative dialogue with the participants about important life events that shaped their sexual and gender identity from childhood into adolescence. They were encouraged to share main personal stories that were important to their lives as they narrated their timelines.

Due to the sensitivity of the topic, an ethnographic peer method was employed to select the interviewers; the interviewers were of the same sex as that of the interviewees. The interviewers worked at the local community development centres with the participants. The data collectors were considered trustworthy members of the community by youth due to their past and ongoing engagement with the local community development centres from which the participants were recruited. All data collectors were below 30 years of age so that they could still be considered peers by study participants, and them being slightly older removed some of the risks of disclosure of sensitive information. This approach reduced the time for building rapport and trust between the participants and data collectors (Gausman et al., 2019).

The interviews only were recorded, transcribed, and included in the analysis. The analysis has been performed by an international team; Arabic is not a native language for some members. Therefore, 75% of the interviews were randomly selected and translated into English for analysis. The remaining few transcribed interviews were also analysed in the original language to sustain the cultural context of the analysis. The team mostly comprised Jordanians, with one international researcher who used grounded theory to develop a codebook. Each team member coded the same two transcribed interviews to develop initial themes. The team then discussed the emergent themes and reached a consensus on codes and definitions. Subsequently, another two transcribed intreviews were coded in the same manner and the codebook revised based on group discussion. This process continued until no new codes were identified and the codebook was finalized, at which point, the team recoded all initial transcripts that had previously been coded as well as the remaining transcripts. At least two team members coded each transcript to ensure consistency in applying codes and definitions across the team. Together, the team reviewed the codes and organized them into overarching themes.

Results

Participants

This study included 64 adolescent participants, and the study sample was split equally between those of Jordanian and Syrian origins and between both genders. The participants’ ages ranged between 15 and 19 years, with a mean age of 18 (SD = 1.38). Of the participants, 15 were from Amman, 17 from Mafraq, and 16 each from Irbid and Zarqa cities.

Themes

The participants’ narrations tended to focus on two distinct chapters of the life course: childhood and adolescence. As such, two major themes were identified chronologically, the first theme being Childhood: Diffused gender boundaries and the second theme being Adolescence: A transitional process in preparation for future roles. The second theme consisted of two subthemes: 1) nature vs nurture and 2) the public sphere is for men, while the private sphere is for women.

Theme one. Childhood: diffused gender boundaries

Most Jordanian and Syrian participants, both male and female, recalled childhood stages in which their gender identities were fluid and the boundaries were defused among genders during childhood. They specifically described limited gender restrictions on several aspects of their daily activities, such as mixed-gender play, mingling, hanging around in the neighbourhood, or visiting nearby friends’ or relatives’ houses. This was in sharp contrast to the participants’ descriptions of the restrictions later imposed during adolescence. A Jordanian girl from Irbid said:

Yes, when I was young, I used to play football with the boys in my neighborhood, but now that is a red line that cannot be crossed.

A Syrian male participant from Amman reflected:

Even here, I used to play with girls … Syrian girls. I used to go to a Syrian school and considered girls like my sisters, where we played and joked around without considering that we are different.

However, at the same time, both female and male participants described parental restrictions being placed on their childhood activities under the premise of keeping their children safe. For example, a Syrian male participant from Zarqa reported the following about his father:

[He] would check on us every half an hour. If we weren’t in the neighborhood, he’d come down to look for us and reprimand us when he would find us. We could only play for an hour, and only after finishing all of our homework and not being late outside.

Further, a Jordanian female participant from Irbid indicated that she was not allowed to go outside alone:

I had to have someone accompany [her] because [she] was a child and now it’s ok, [she] can go out alone.

Theme two. Adolescence: a transitional process in preparation for future roles

Adolescence was perceived by the participants as a transitional phase that would prepare them for future gender-based expectations and gender roles assigned to adults by society. During this period, the adolescent participants began to see themselves as adults and emphasized that traditional gender roles were strengthened and enforced. Gender stereotypes shaped how the adolescents developed their aspirations and imagined their futures. For instance, young men focused on masculine gender norms that necessitated seeking and getting a job, learning a craft, and being the breadwinner. A Jordanian male participant from Zarqa said:

Work is a male responsibility regardless if the male is married or not; he must take care of the house.

A Syrian male participant from Zarqa reported:

My father said that since I dropped out of school, I shouldn’t sit at home as well but learn a trade.

Similarly, another Syrian male participant Mafraq said:

Yes… my father would tell me that I have grown up and have to go out for a job. [A man] has to take care of his family and sustain a job after reaching 16 or 17 years old. He must secure his future and work so then he can get married.

On the other hand, young women described feminine gender roles that emphasized tradition, such as marriage and housekeeping activities. During adolescence, the female participants were encouraged to start sharing some household responsibilities with their mothers, such as taking care of younger siblings. A Syrian female participant from Zarqa said:

I have to stay at home and do household work. I plan for the future to work, but my mother says, ‘In our family, no girls work.’ I want to live my life and work and have something for myself. I want to change the reality of my life, but they keep telling me that I am a girl and my job is just to stay at home in the kitchen.

Young men in this study shared stereotypical views about women. A Syrian male participant from Irbid declared:

[I] expect from a girl to be a good wife, capable of raising children, capable of bearing the burdens of marriage.

Subtheme 1. Nature vs. nurture

The participants emphasized specific markers that presumably triggered their transition into adulthood, revealing important differences between male and female participants’ experiences. The female participants largely focused on visible physiologic markers (nature) as signs that they were becoming ready to enter adulthood, while the male participants focused more on social markers (nurture). The former heavily attributed the onset of menarche (physiological puberty) as the major marker of approaching adulthood, while the latter ascribed the transition to certain events in their lives that had sociocultural implication, e.g. the death or illness of a parent, war, immigration, and even falling in love. Regarding the transition, a Syrian female participant said:

There are … nephews and nieces who are supposed to be close people—not strangers. They sleep in the same bed, play together, and hang out together as children, but once the girl reaches puberty, they tell her, ‘You can’t joke around with him or sit with him.’

A Jordanian male participant shared:

I dropped out of school. In the fifth grade, I had to work because my father passed away after the war. I had to work to support my family because our financial situation was bad.

Another Jordanian male participant from Zarqa had a similar experience:

Because I have started working, I stopped playing with my friends since I was 10 years old. I dropped school because my father had a heart attack.

Young men reported that they were expected to take over their father’s roles in social events, even if their father’s absence was only temporary. For example, a Syrian male participant recounted:

My father was traveling, and we had a funeral to go to. From our traditions, from each family, one person must attend. My father called me and told me that I had to go, so I went. My uncles saw how I went and handled it well [acting like adult men], so they [my family] started treating me as a man.

Subtheme 2. The public sphere is for men, while the private sphere is for women

After the initial marker of gender divergence was experienced, the distribution of privilege and power between the male and female participants was described as more unequal. For young men, the transition to adulthood was associated with increased and extensive freedom; their social spheres were characterized as largely external and public. The majority of male participants in the study expressed positive feelings upon reaching puberty. They experienced minimal parentally imposed authority and more involvement in family discussions and decisions as they entered adulthood. Further, they stated that the margin of freedom (e.g. going out, going abroad, spending extended time with companions, etc.) increased as soon as they transitioned from childhood to adulthood. A Jordanian male participant from Zarqa said:

I have my freedom now. I go out whenever I want. I used to have a curfew. My parents used to talk about crucial matters, and I wouldn’t get involved, and now we share discussions on such matters.

The transition from childhood to adolescence also expanded male privileges such as being heard by adults, being entitled to express opinions while participating in family conversations, being allowed to stay away from home for extended periods, and being respected and acknowledged by parents and relatives. A Jordanian male participant from Mafraq said:

When I was 12, my father started seeing me as responsible and would give me some responsibilities to handle. The relationship stopped being authoritative, and I started having some freedom and the space to express my opinion.

A Syrian male participant from Mafraq reported:

My father used to interfere and solve my problems. Now I don’t let him get into them.

While young men’s experience of gender socialization was largely public, the freedoms that they were afforded also had a private aspect. A Jordanian male participant from Mafraq said:

I started having my own privacy and my own private life that I could separate from other people. Even communication with your family becomes less frequent.

Female participants in the study also recognized the robust outer spheres accessible to men; a Jordanian female participant from Mafraq attested:

Yes, society looks at boys in a different way. When a boy hits puberty and becomes a man, he develops a voice of his own where he starts to force his opinion upon his sisters to discipline them.

Another young woman shared a similar perspective:

I think a guy has everything allowed for him, like working, going out in the middle of the night, going wherever he pleases. He can meet girls. He can meet guys from different backgrounds. There are a lot of differences between us.

Even though most young men experienced increased freedoms as they transitioned to adulthood, some societal restrictions were imposed on them, especially those dictated by religious norms relevant to masculinity and modesty such as smoking, drinking alcohol, wearing very tight jeans or shorts, and having long hair. A Jordanian male participant from Mafraq said:

You cannot sit with your girl cousin, and you cannot wear short shorts or have long hair. You feel that people are responsible for you.

Young men’s experience of gender socialization during adolescence was in contrast to young women’s experience, which was more private and away from the public eye. The female participants described being restricted to indoors, being prohibited to go outside and play, and being required to wear a hijab (willingly or unwillingly) and do daily house chores, which were set alongside a long list of prohibitions and social taboos.

As such, the norms of adulthood for women were associated with inwardness and more restrictions. For them, becoming an adult implied an end to playing outside and the narrowing of their friend circle. Norms of modesty expected of women were reflected in clothing and manners; in adulthood, abiding by such norms was described as mandatory, especially those related to interactions with the opposite sex. A Jordanian female participant from Zarqa said:

At 13 years old, everyone started telling me that I have grown up and that I shouldn’t do this or that and saying things like I should be aware of my clothes so people won’t talk and that I should wear a veil.

Additionally, a Syrian female participant from Mafraq shared:

When I was young and my family wanted to go to some place, they would ask me if I wanted to go or not. I’d tell them yes, but now, when they want to go somewhere, they won’t even ask me. And I have to wear a hijab.

A Syrian female participant said:

I shouldn’t go outside with my friends, because I might be talked about. I can’t wear pants in the streets, and because I am a girl, I can’t form a relationship with someone they didn’t know, whether a guy or a girl. Because I am a girl, I can’t have a phone.

The female participants equated childhood with happiness, expressing strong emotions when sharing their childhood stories. Many of them expressed grief that they could not return to their childhood years, which, for them, seemed like a short and beautiful dream filled with freedom, play, joy, and simplicity. A Syrian female participant from Zarqa said:

My parents started feeling that I was older now, and I still feel that I need to play and live my life the way I want to. I regret the moments that have passed that I couldn’t grasp, especially that a girl can go through puberty but still think like a child. Parents don’t understand that.

A Jordanian female participant from Mafraq recounted:

My life was sunny when I was a kid. My life was happy. My father had a truck; I used to enjoy playing inside it with my friends.

A Syrian female participant from Zarqa said:

When I turned 16 years old. The veil, I wore it of my own accord; no one forced me to. I started feeling that my parents started restricting me because I had grown; when I used to play in the neighborhood, and I used to like to play with the girls all the time, and my mother stopped allowing me to do that because I was an adult now.

Unlike for male participants, sorrow, anxiety, and a fear of restrictions characterized puberty for young women in the study. A Syrian girl from Irbid said:

I was sad because I couldn’t play anymore, and my father stopped taking me out to the park. So, in secondary school, I locked myself up and was sad about the fact I would not go out. So, I became sadder because I felt I was still young and didn’t want to wear a hijab. I wasn’t into it.

A Jordanian girl from Amman echoed her:

I was bothered that I started wearing the hijab. My body started growing things that I did not know of because I was little. I was psychologically affected; I became a young woman, and this cycle comes every month.

Further, a Jordanian female participant from Mafraq said:

First of all, I went through depression. Puberty was a depressing stage in my life. I wasn’t comfortable with myself and my body.

Female bodies were considered a symbol of honour that needed protection, and this authority on women was practiced mainly by the men of the family, especially the fathers and brothers. A Jordanian female participant from Amman reported:

You hear a father saying to his daughter: ‘If I hear you talking to a guy, I will kill you.’ So how do you accept it that your son talks to a girl!

A Syrian female participant from Zarqa said:

Yes. I used to like to wear short clothes. My brother would nag me about it and say I should feel ashamed. Even if I wore a blouse this length.

Similarly, men’s authority over women was illustrated in the account of another Syrian female participant from Zarqa:

I had a dream to open a salon here in Jordan, but my brother came up to my father and said it was ‘Aib’ (shame) what I was doing, going around these salons. I felt frustrated and forgot about salons.

Discussion

Our findings elucidate key points in the transition from childhood to adolescence that contribute to some of the key challenges related to achieving gender equality in Jordan. Specifically, the clear distinction in behavioural expectations between childhood and adolescence illustrates the powerful impact that the transition to adolescence has in perpetuating unequal gender norms. As such, we believe that our study provides insight into the nature and sources of social pressure experienced by adolescents in Jordan that contribute to gender inequality and highlights opportunity for intervention. Our findings may also be used to understand how unequal gender norms become entrenched in comparable Arab cultures.

The restrictive gender norms in Jordan documented in this study create social boundaries that convey a firm taxonomy between nature (women) and nurture (men), the indoors (women) and outdoors (men), restrictions (women) and freedom (men), and between who has the power (men) and who is subject to it (women). Although all participants were aware of gender inequality and related double standards, the female participants felt gender inequality more acutely than their male counterparts. In the literature, young Jordanian women have reported hiding menarche for fear of the social restrictions imposed once a girl reaches that point of biological development and is therefore believed to have become an adult (Al Omari et al., 2016). Unlike the female participants in our study, male adolescents expressed the transition to adulthood positively, as they associated adulthood with increased freedom. The concept of social ‘belonging’ may explain the social transition processes experienced by male adolescents (Walton & Brady, 2017). The male participants mentioned feeling more accepted and respected in social life after reaching adulthood, and adulthood provided them with the opportunity to make valuable social contributions. As a result, they aspired to conform to the gender norms that define ‘men’ in Jordan.

While the male participants felt an internal motivation to conform to dominant gender norms, external pressure to conform was a strong motivator for women. Specifically, parents, older brothers, peers, neighbours, and relatives were identified as gender socialization forces in this study. Felt pressure for gender differentiation is an independent dimension of gender formation (Perry et al., 2019), which encompasses how growing children face and respond to social pressures; the outcome is that they feel pushed or motivated to avoid opposite-gender behaviours and to adopt stereotypical same-gender traits (Perry et al., 2019). In the study context, failing to conform to expected gender roles was understood as a reason for social condemnation.

The female and male adolescents in the study were found to perceive levels of felt social pressure differently, resulting in the female participants being more susceptible to the social pressure to conform to specific gender norms (Jackson & Bussey, 2020; Nielson et al., 2020; Skinner et al., 2018). The adolescents in our study, especially the female participants, described intense social pressure to conform to gender typicality as they entered adulthood. Such pressure to follow expected cultural and societal norms is communicated both directly and indirectly to children and adolescents (Cook et al., 2019). Our findings reinforce the implicit and explicit nature of cultural gender expectations that adolescents recognize while transitioning from childhood to adolescence, e.g. notions about how women should sit in a disciplined and polite manner and should either be chaperoned or stay indoors. At the same time, men are expected to show strength and participate in the family business, a message communicated to adolescents directly and indirectly by a more passive process of imposing restrictions on women or the lack thereof on men.

Of all the sources of social pressure described by the adolescents in our study, the results emphasize the prominence of familial pressure. In Middle Eastern cultures, family is the foundation of the social system. Unfortunately, the family’s role in protecting chastity and honour is often used as a justification for violence, particularly by male family members (Almusleh, 2021). Parents, as well as older and younger brothers, are considered entitled to protect the honour of the family by imposing patriarchal authority on female adolescents’ freedom regarding their actions, mobility, and relationships. The patriarchal power that governs female adolescents’ behaviour has been previously researched in Jordan (Al Omari et al., 2016; Gausman et al., 2021). In particular, our findings concerning the ‘protective restrictions’ enforced most often by members of the family over female adolescents’ behaviours illustrate the role of patriarchal power in shaping the gender identity of women in Jordan. The fundamental role of parental and familial pressure may be somewhat unique to the Middle East, as findings from non-Arab cultures suggest that parents often represent the least influential social force impacting gender development during adolescence (Cook et al., 2019; Nielson et al., 2020). Specifically, pressure from oneself and peers, not parents, was found to relate to gender typicality in one study on adolescents (Cook et al., 2019). Similar findings, with slight variations by gender type, were observed by Nielson et al. (2020).

The influence of parents’ and peers’ social pressure on adolescents’ gender formation is thought to gradually weaken as they grow (Cook et al., 2019). After being shaped directly and indirectly by restrictive social norms, adolescents develop self-acceptance as time passes and as they move towards adulthood (Cook et al., 2019). To some extent, the adolescents of both genders in the current study considered the eventual internalization of traditional gender norms a normal process; they adjusted to the sense of gender typicality and inequality with time.

Limitations

Although the current study provides important insight into how adolescents in Jordan transition to adulthood gender roles, our findings are not meant to be generalizable given the in-depth qualitative nature of this study. Further, our study does not address gender identity formation beyond the binary of male and female gender identification. Given the limited research on gender equality in the Middle Eastern context, expanding gender research would be of great interest to political leaders, stakeholders, and activists aiming to facilitate social transformation towards more equitable gender norms.

Conclusion and implications

The current study explored the life stories of male and female adolescents in Jordan to understand when and how differences in gender roles and sociocultural norms shaped the development of their gender identity while transitioning from childhood to adulthood. This study sought to provide an original contribution to the literature on how gender roles and inequities evolve into an overall gender identity among adolescents in Jordan. Our findings illustrate a delicate and complex balance between two forces that shaped the gender identity of the male and female adolescents in this study: explicit social cues and implicit self-conceptions of gender. For a positive step towards gender equality in Jordan, this research suggests the need for strengthening positive appraisals of the self; however, efforts at the individual level will have little effect without a broader social transformation to counter restrictive social pressures.

Additionally, we find that the female participants’ sense of awareness about gender inequality points to the burgeoning of critical consciousness. To facilitate this process, policy reforms and social interventions aimed at counteracting harmful gender norms are required at both the micro and macro levels. The lack of gender differentiation observed during childhood may serve as an entry point to build more equitable gender norms. Targeting unequal and harmful norms transmitted through the most influential socialization forces in children’s surroundings, especially parents and other family members, will be vital to the efforts to reduce the social pressure on children and adolescents to conform.

In line with our findings, several approaches and interventions described in the literature foster the transformation of gendered social norms and promote gender equity (Heymann et al., 2019; John & Edmeades, 2017; Levy et al., 2020). Empowering adolescents with information and life skills and cultivating legal, policy, and social environments to challenge gender norms are key to reversing gender inequalities and restrictive norms (Heymann et al., 2019; John & Edmeades, 2017; Levy et al., 2020). Nevertheless, as indicated in our findings, we emphasize the importance of carefully evaluating the deep-rooted cultural contexts and developing a deep understanding of when and how differences in expected gender roles and sociocultural norms determine gender identity development in order to find the most salient targets for intervention.

Author contributions

All authors made substantial contributions to writing the full manuscript and have approved its final submitted version.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work is part of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Research Programme with project number W 08.560.012, which is financed by the WOTRO Science for Global Development of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).