Studying Everyday Variability in Gender Identity and Expression: An Ambulatory Assessment Perspective

No literature so far explores gender variability at the day-to-day, within-person level, to what extent aspects of the social context impact this variability, and to what extent transgender, gender non-conforming, and cisgender people experience this variability similarly or differently. This project explores the potential that ambulatory assessment methods hold for the empirical study of daily gender variability. A review of strengths and limitations of common ambulatory assessment methods is presented, and considerations for how to employ these methods for studying daily gender variability are discussed. Based on this review, and experience studying similar constructs using the methods herein described, we propose that self-report-based ambulatory assessments, such as daily diaries and/or experience sampling, may be particularly suited for capturing day-to-day variability in aspects of gender identity and that observational ambulatory assessments, such as the Electronically Activated Recorder or wearable cameras/sensors, may be particularly suited for capturing day-to-day variability in aspects of gender expression. When used in tandem, these methods can allow the study of daily gender variability jointly from the “inside out” perspective of the agent, and from the “outside in” perspective of the observer. In addition, mixed-method qualitative elements such as open-ended descriptions of momentary gender-related experiences can be incorporated. Ambulatory assessment methods can help researchers better understand gender at the level of daily, within-person variability.