Perceived Gender Discrimination and Gender Identity Congruence Among Adolescent Girls: Conditional Indirect Associations Through Father-Daughter Relationship Quality at Different Levels of Psychological Resilience
This cross-sectional study of Iranian adolescent girls reveals that perceived gender discrimination negatively impacts gender identity congruence through father-daughter relationship quality, a conditional indirect effect that reverses direction from negative to positive as psychological resilience increases.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
Adolescence is a time when young people begin to piece together who they are, often by testing their sense of self against the world around them. For girls, this process happens within a social landscape that frequently assigns different values, expectations, and rules based on gender. When a girl feels she is being treated unfairly simply because she is female, it can shake her confidence and alter how she sees herself. Psychologists call this feeling of being true to one's own sense of self "gender identity congruence." It is not about being a certain type of person, but rather about feeling comfortable and consistent with who you are. Researchers have long known that family relationships play a huge role in how children navigate these challenges. A father, in particular, can be a powerful figure in a daughter's life, offering support or, conversely, reinforcing the very pressures she faces outside the home. The question is: how does the experience of unfair treatment at school or in public ripple through the family, and does a girl's own inner strength change how that ripple affects her?
A team of researchers in Iran set out to explore this complex web of connections among 431 adolescent girls, aged 12 to 18, attending public schools in Tehran. They wanted to understand the path between three things: how often the girls felt they were being discriminated against because of their gender, how close and supportive they felt their relationship was with their fathers, and how secure they felt in their own gender identity. They also wanted to see if a girl's ability to bounce back from stress, known as psychological resilience, changed the way these factors interacted. The study did not follow the girls over time, but instead asked them to fill out detailed questionnaires at a single point in time, allowing the researchers to map out the statistical links between these experiences.
The researchers found a clear pattern in the data. When girls reported feeling they were treated unfairly or devalued because they were female, they also tended to report lower quality in their relationships with their fathers. It seemed that the stress of discrimination was not just an external event; it appeared to seep into the family dynamic, making the connection with a father feel more distant or strained. However, the study also revealed that a strong, supportive relationship with a father was linked to a stronger sense of gender identity congruence. Girls who felt closer to their fathers, who felt heard and supported, were more likely to feel secure in their own gender identity. Interestingly, the direct link between feeling discriminated against and feeling insecure in one's gender identity was not statistically significant on its own. Instead, the effect seemed to travel through the relationship with the father. The unfair treatment appeared to damage the relationship, and that damaged relationship, in turn, made it harder for the girl to feel secure in her identity.
The most surprising discovery, however, involved the role of resilience. The researchers expected that girls with higher resilience would simply be better protected against the negative effects of discrimination, perhaps keeping their relationship with their father stable even when things were tough. Instead, the data showed a more complex and unexpected shift. For girls with lower or average levels of resilience, the pattern held true: more discrimination meant a worse relationship with the father. But for girls with very high levels of resilience, the pattern flipped. Among these highly resilient girls, reporting more discrimination was actually associated with a better relationship with their father.
This reversal suggests that resilience does not act as a simple shield that blocks out bad experiences. Instead, it may change how a girl engages with her family when facing those experiences. A girl with high resilience might be more likely to recognize unfair treatment, find the courage to talk about it with her father, and actively seek his support. In this scenario, the act of facing discrimination together could strengthen their bond rather than weaken it. It is as if the resilience allows the girl to turn a difficult external event into an opportunity for connection, whereas a girl with less resilience might withdraw or feel unable to bridge the gap, leading to distance. The study suggests that the same stressful event can lead to very different outcomes depending on the internal resources the girl brings to the situation.
The researchers were careful to note that their study was a snapshot in time, so they could not prove that one thing caused the other. They could not say for certain that discrimination caused the relationship to change, or that resilience caused the relationship to improve. They also relied entirely on what the girls said about themselves, which can sometimes be influenced by how they feel at that moment. Furthermore, the study took place in a specific cultural context in Tehran, so these findings might look different in other parts of the world or in different family structures. Despite these limits, the work offers a crucial insight: the impact of gender discrimination is not a fixed force. It is filtered through the quality of family relationships and the personal strengths of the young person. The findings suggest that to support adolescent girls, we cannot just look at the discrimination they face in isolation. We must also look at how they talk to their fathers and how they are supported to navigate these challenges, recognizing that for some, facing these difficulties together might actually bring them closer.
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