Average Links Between Daily Gender Expression and Depressive Symptoms Do Not Describe Individual Adolescents

Abstract

Gender expression is important for mental health, with masculinity and femininity having differential significance for unique adolescents. Yet, most empirical work on gender expression assumes it is trait-like or similarly shifting across teens. This intensive longitudinal study examined state-like aspects of gender expression and heterogeneity in adolescent-specific associations with depressive symptoms over 100 days. Participants were 106 adolescents, including 5 gender-expansive youth (54.7% cisgirls, 74.5% White; Mage = 13.31, SDage = 1.94). A sample-average link between daily masculinity and reduced symptoms was found for cisboys. Adolescent-specific results qualified this effect: Only ~25% evidenced an association between daily gender-congruent expression-masculinity for cisboys and femininity for cisgirls-and daily reduced symptoms. Using 9000+ daily reports, findings highlight the dynamic nature of gender expression and the need to use a person-specific approach in understanding the heterogenous psychological correlates of masculinity and femininity for today's youth.