Abstract
Gender identity is one of the basic forms of identity which has a key role in the mental health during adolescence. The present study was conducted to determine the process of gender identity development among Iranian female adolescents. In this grounded theory study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 55 purposefully and theoretical selected participants including 30 female adolescents and 25 key informants who lived in urban society of Isfahan, Iran, in 2016–2018. Data were analyzed using Strauss and Corbin’s mode of analysis (2008), through constant comparative method, applying levels of open, axial, and selective coding with MAXQDA software. Development of gender identity in the shadow of socialization was presented as the core category extracted from the data in this study. Female adolescents would use “sexual self-expression during puberty,” “attachment to parents and peers,” “tendency towards the opposite sex,” and “effort for social acceptance” as the main strategies in the development of gender identity until achieving “stabilized gender identity.” “Girls’ communicational skills” and “parents’ empowerment” were the causal conditions in this process. “Gender differences” and “sociocultural texture of the society” were the contextual conditions and the influence of “peers” and “media” was the interventional conditions in the development of gender identity in female adolescents. Improving girls’ communicational skills, empowering parents for managing their interactions with their daughters, adjusting gender roles in the society, and creating appropriate content by the media could have an important role in hel** female adolescents achieving stabilized gender identity.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all the female adolescents, their parents, and the experts who participated in the present study.
Funding
This study was funded by Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (Grant Number 395294).
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The present study was a Ph.D. thesis in reproductive health and was approved by the ethics committee of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences under the ethics code IR.MUI.REC.1395.3. 294.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the ethics committee of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.
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All participants signed a written informed consent form.
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Mousavi, M.S., Shahriari, M., Salehi, M. et al. Gender identity development in the shadow of socialization: a grounded theory approach. Arch Womens Ment Health 22, 245–251 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0888-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-018-0888-0