Recalled Gendered Behavior in Childhood: A Comparison of Androphilic Men, Gynephilic Men, and Androphilic Women in Japan

The current study tested the hypothesis that men who are androphilic (sexually attracted to adult men) in a non-Western, developed country—Japan—would recall engaging in more female-typical behavior, and less male-typical behavior, in childhood, compared to men who are gynephilic (sexually attracted to adult women). Androphilic men, androphilic women, and gynephilic men (N = 302) responded to the Female-Typical Behavior Subscale and the Male-Typical Behavior Subscale of the Childhood Gender Identity Scale, which asked participants to recall their childhood behavior. Results indicated that gynephilic men scored highest on the Male-Typical Behavior Subscale and lowest on the Female-Typical Behavior Subscale. Androphilic women scored the highest on the Female-Typical Behavior Subscale and lowest on the Male-Typical Behavior Subscale. Androphilic men scored intermediately for both the Male- and Female-Typical Behavior Subscales. The results supported the hypothesis that Japanese androphilic men would recall greater gender-nonconforming childhood behavior compared to gynephilic men. These results further reinforce the conclusion that childhood gender-nonconforming behavior is a cross-culturally universal aspect of psychosexual life course development in androphilic men. We discuss why this may be the case, as well as why cross-cultural variation occurs in the magnitude with which recalled childhood gender nonconformity is reported by androphilic males.