Objective: To assess gender-typed preferences and gender identity in children with and without variations in sex developments (VSDs).
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 78 children with VSDs (ages 3-12; mean age = 7 years; 55% White, non-Hispanic) recruited through specialty clinics in the United States and 78 children without VSDs (ages 3-13; mean age = 7 years; 55% White, Non-Hispanic) recruited through university-based community databases completed assessments of gender-typed toy, clothing and peer preferences, continuous and categorical measures of gender identity, and perceived similarity to boys and to girls.
Results: Generally, children with and without VSDs did not differ in their gender development on 5 of 7 measures for each gender group. Children raised as girls who had VSDs had more masculine toy preferences, t(84.89) = 3.421; p = 0.001; d = 0.698, and viewed themselves as more similar to boys, t(67.43) = 2.994; p = 0.004; d = 0.648, than comparison children raised as girls. Boys with VSDs selected more masculine toys (t(55.17) = 2.413; p = 0.019; d = 0.623), and responded in a more-masculine way on the continuous gender identity measure (t(38.40) = 2.364; p = 0.023; d = 0.621), than did boys in the community comparison sample, though these effects, unlike the effects amongst girls, were not robust against corrections for multiple comparisons.
Conclusion: During early and mid-childhood, VSDs were not strongly associated with differences in gender development. Future longitudinal research on the gender development of youth with VSDs is necessary, particularly as they mature into adolescence.
Keywords: Disorders of sex development; gender identity; intersex.