Can you tell if your child will be gay

Getty Images. In innumerable studies, scientists have documented that these sex differences are largely impervious to learning. Signs of pre-homosexuality Some signs of pre-homosexuality show up early in a child’s life as what might be called “cross-gender behavior.” Five markers, in particular, can determine whether a boy or girl is a likely candidate for gender identity disorder: An affinity to cross-dress.

This can start from an early age if you can identify the signs of your child's sexual orientation. Empirically, the authors explain, there are two ways to investigate this hypothesis, with either a prospective or retrospective study.

In looking carefully at the childhoods of gay adults, researchers are finding an intriguing set of behavioral indicators that homosexuals seem to have in common. Using the prospective method, young children displaying sex-atypical patterns are followed into adolescence and early adulthood so that their sexual orientation can be assessed at maturity.

Wait for them to come out to you, but create a supportive environment for them to do so. Toy interests are another key sex difference, with boys gravitating toward toy machine guns and monster trucks and girls orienting toward baby dolls and hyperfeminized figurines.

Not sure that’s the case with your son? Updated Oct. 11,AM PDT / Source: TODAY Alexander. This method is not terribly practical for several reasons. Not surprisingly, therefore, boys naturally select other boys for playmates, and girls would much rather play with other girls.

Is Your Child Gay

We all know the stereotypes: an unusually light, delicate, effeminate air in a little boy's step, an interest in dolls, makeup, princesses and dresses, and a strong distaste for rough play with other boys. So on the basis of some earlier, shakier research, along with a good dose of common sense, Bailey and Zucker hypothesized that homosexuals would show an inverted pattern of sex-typed childhood behaviors—little boys preferring girls as playmates and becoming infatuated with their mother's makeup kit; little girls strangely enamored of field hockey or professional wrestling—that sort of thing.

Girls enact the role of, say, cooing mothers, ballerinas or fairy princesses, and boys prefer to be soldiers and superheroes. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule; it is only when comparing the aggregate data that sex differences leap into the stratosphere of statistical significance.

I think my child may be LGBTQ: 6 things you can do before they come out Ways to support your kid even before you have the conversation. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

If your son likes sissy stuff or your daughter shuns feminine frocks, he or she is more likely to buck the heterosexual norm. Given that a small proportion of the population is homosexual, prospective studies require a large number of children. Curiously enough, the age-old homophobic fears of many parents reflect some genuine predictive currency.

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Parent Suspects That Child

But predicting sexual preference is still an inexact science. So cultivate your little prehomosexual's native talents, and your ultimate genetic payoff could, strangely enough, be even larger with one very special gay child than it would be if 10 mediocre.

Don't ask your child if they're gay or transgender. It is only relatively recently, however, that developmental scientists have conducted controlled studies to identify the earliest and most reliable signs of adult homosexuality. Young children of both sexes enjoy pretend play, but the roles within the fantasy context are gender-segregated by age two.

The role of parents As parents, all you can do is provide them with love and support. Michael Bailey and Kenneth J. Zucker, both psychologists, published a seminal paper on childhood markers of homosexuality in Bailey and Zucker examined sex-typed behavior—that long, now scientifically canonical list of innate sex differences in the behaviors of young males versus young females.

The most salient differences are in the domain of play. These behavioral patterns are feared, loathed and often spoken of directly as harbingers of adult homosexuality. They are also found in every culture examined. By Jesse Bering. In little girls, there is the outwardly boyish stance, perhaps a penchant for tools, a square-jawed readiness for physical tussles with boys, and an aversion to all the perfumed, delicate trappings of femininity.