Elementary Students’ Gender Beliefs and Attitudes Following a 12-Week Arts Curriculum Focused on Gender

Abstract

Middle- and high school-based programs that affirm diverse sexual orientations and gender identities are related to lower rates of bullying and better mental health for LGBTQ students, yet little is known about how to implement affirming programs for elementary-aged children. This study is among the first to examine how an arts-based curriculum for grades K–5 that embraced expansive understandings of gender was related to children’s gender attitudes and beliefs. Structured interviews queried beliefs and attitudes towards activities associated with traditional gender norms with 83 students in a California afterschool program. Following the curriculum, more students reported their gender in expansive terms, specific changes in gender norm beliefs were observed, and attitudes became more positive towards those who engage in gender-expansive roles, activities, and attire (e.g. a boy who becomes a mother). Results suggest that gender-focused arts-based curricula may be associated with increased awareness of gender norms, shifts in understandings of gender, and more positive attitudes toward gender-expansive roles, activities, and attire.

Keywords:

• Gender
• art
• gender role
• gender identity
• LGBT students
• elementary students

Notes on contributors

Ellora Vilkin is a clinical psychology doctoral student at Stony Brook University. Ellora received a B.A. in English with Honors in Nonfiction Writing from Brown University and completed post baccalaureate studies in Psychology at UC Berkeley Extension. Her research focuses on the wellbeing and close relationships of sexual and gender minority people.

Leslie Einhorn is the Founder and Executive Director of CASA (Children's After School Arts), a nonprofit after school arts program that has a focus on social justice and social emotional wellness. For over twenty years CASA has been guiding San Francisco youth toward open expression, expansive hearts, and questioning minds.

Satyanand Satyanarayana is a clinical psychology graduate student, health track, at the University of Miami. He received his JD from Harvard Law School and his post baccalaureate diploma in psychology from UC Berkeley. His research interests are focused on behavioral interventions to improve health outcomes for people at risk of contracting HIV as well as for people living with HIV.

Ammo Eisu is a Bay Area-born, Asian-Latinx, first generation American artist and educator. He studied Electrical Engineering at Yale University. After completing his BS in 2004, he pursued his passions for music and performance, touring the US and playing music at festivals such as South by Southwest, Noise Pop, and CMJ. In 2011, he obtained his MFA in Design from California College of the Arts. In 2018, Ammo became the Director of Upper School at CASA.

Katrina Kimport is Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences and a research sociologist in the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) program at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research focuses on the construction–and opportunities for deconstruction–of gender- and sexuality-based inequality.

Annesa Flentje is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Nursing. Dr. Flentje's research has targeted multiple ways to reduce health disparities among sexual and gender minority people including prevention, increasing visibility of sexual and gender minority people in research, understanding the biological mechanisms of minority stress, and developing interventions to reduce minority stress. Dr. Flentje was an inaugural recipient of the 2018 National Institutes of Health Sexual and Gender Minority Investigator Award in recognition of contributions to sexual and gender minority health research.

Additional information

Funding

The curriculum described in this study was supported by a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission provided to Children's After School Arts.