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Handedness in Boys with Gender Identity Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2001

Kenneth J. Zucker
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health–Clarke Division and University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Nicole Beaulieu
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health–Clarke Division and University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Susan J. Bradley
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health–Clarke Division and University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Gina M. Grimshaw,
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health–Clarke Division and University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Anne Wilcox
Affiliation:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health–Clarke Division and University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
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Abstract

Handedness preference was assessed in 205 boys with gender identity disorder and 205 clinical control boys referred for other reasons. Boys with gender identity disorder were significantly more likely to be left-handed than the clinical control boys (19.5% vs. 8.3%, respectively). The boys with gender identity disorder, but not the clinical control boys, also had a significantly higher rate of left-handedness compared to three independent, general population studies of nonreferred boys (11.8%; N = 14,253) by Hardyck, Goldman, and Petrinovich (1975), Calnan and Richardson (1976), and Eaton, Chipperfield, Ritchot, and Kostiuk (1996). Left-handedness appears to be a behavioral marker of an underlying neurobiological process associated with gender identity disorder in boys.

Type
Paper
Copyright
© 2001 Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry

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