PARENTAL INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN’S GENDER IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT IN LAURIE FRANKEL’S THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS IS

Social aspects, including parents, are likely to influence the development of gender identity. As parents' actions and behaviours convey meaning to their children, they contribute to the formation of children's gender identity development. The pr esent study aims to investigate the parental influence on gender identity development of a child character named Claude in Laurie Frankel's This Is How It Always Is. This study is a literary criticism concerning the issue of gender identity development in a literary work viewed from a psychological approach. The data, collected from a novel entitled This Is How It Always Is (2017) by Laurie Frankel, were analyzed using the social cognitive theory of gender development by Bussey & Bandura (1999). The results of the study revealed that his parents influence Claude's gender identity development through the process of modelling as a part of observational learning, which is also supported by parents' evaluative reactions such as rewards or punishments. The mode of modelling reveals egalitarian gender roles and sexual orientation modelled and Claude's attention to his mother as an ideal female model, alongside with how parents convey affective reactions such as acceptance and approval on Claude's gender orientation.


INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the number of children experiencing gender identity crisis, such as transgenerism, seems likely to increase (Kirkup, 2020). The concern gives rise to an inquiry of how gender identity is unstable at one point in time. It indicates that, although biological sex is persistent from birth, gender identity is a gradual process with no linear pattern related to biological assignation (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). The development of gender identity is a notion of an ongoing process that may change across the span of life.
Accordingly, the development of gender cannot be seen through a single lens. The perspectives on the development itself are diverse. It covers not only biological but also psychological and sociological matters (Bussey, 2011). The issue of gender identity in the novel implies the existence of social influence in family context because the work mainly concerns about how parents deal with a gender-nonconforming kid. It also denotes that this development of gender identity can link with a wide range of social aspects, including parental influence.
The gender identity issue has taken over the society's point of view, even in the creation of literary works. This Is How It Always Is, a novel written by Laurie Frankel (2017), is a reality-based story about a young boy named Claude who identifies himself as a girl at his early age. Aside from the struggle of living his childhood without conforming heteronormativity norms, this work also somehow depicts this child character's gender identity that develops as he grows up. However, it develops not solely from the selfconception of biological sex, but also an interplay between personal and social factors.
This study attempts to shed light on the relationship between parents' role and children's gender development by applying the social cognitive theory of gender development coined by Bussey & Bandura (1999) as the advances of social learning perspective on gender development. The theory acknowledges the significance of children's gender cognitions for the connection between gender development and social learning. Supporting Bandura's social cognitive theory, Bussey & Bandura (1999) argue that parents take part in playing an active role during the early phase of gender development.
Family is one of the influential contexts of gender socialization in childhood; therefore, parents function as the first source of social learning. In the perspective of social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), parents are models for gendered behaviour and stereotypes through their behaviours, occupations, and interest, as noted by Bussey & Bandura (1999), "models exemplify activities considered appropriate for the two sexes. Children can learn gender stereotypes from observing the differential performances of male and female models". In other words, gender messages can be indirectly transmitted by parents as children observe their behaviours. For example, children may learn that man and women act differently in playing gender roles, i.e. labour force, housework, child care, or family management (McHale et al., 2003).
Social cognitive theory highlights parents as significant models, instructors, and reinforcers of children's gender identity development. When parents directly or indirectly convey the information to their children about gender, they contribute to the formation of their children's gender identity. Once children are well-informed about their own gender or others' gender, then gender identity regulates their behaviours through sociocognitive processes: self-efficacy which refers to one's belief in his or her own abilities to succeed in certain situations, self-evaluative standards, and outcome expectations linked with gendered conduct. Parent's modelling thereupon is one of the social influences that may affect those three major sociocognitive regulators, along with gender conceptions and competencies (Bussey, 2011).
The significant aspect of modelling in social cognitive theory is that it allows children to exercise their capacity that they produce new strings of behaviour from what they observe. Through internal processes such as attention, retention, production, and motivation, children likely learn the abstract notions of modelled behaviours before they can generate new symbolic ones (Martin & Ruble, 2004).
Several previous studies about gender development in parental context have been conducted (Boe & Woods, 2018;Endendijk et al., 2018;Friedman et al., 2007;Jiping & Tang, 2000;Marks et al., 2009;McHale et al., 2003;Powell & Greenhaus, 2010). However, the application of this topic in literary studies seems rare to find. Comprehensive studies with the same object are not found yet. Therefore, this study attempts to academically investigate the novel by focusing on the topic of gender identity development by applying social cognitive theory. As the character's gender identity is seen not only as a personal matter but also as a social issue, parental influence is considered essential to consider while trying to investigate the formation of the character's female identity within his male body.

METHOD
This study aims to describe parental influence on the gender identity development of the main character Claude in Laurie Frankel's This Is How It Always Is. As a literary criticism that employs psychological approach, this study sets out to describe the data from Laurie Frankel's This Is How It Always Is and by focusing on the issue of gender identity development. The study applies the psychology of literature as an approach that gives careful attention to the main character's learning process of gender identity formation.
The theory used to analyze Claude's gender identity development is social cognitive theory by psychologists Kay Bussey and Albert Bandura (1999), which is the part of Bandura's social cognitive theory. The theory's main proposition is that people learn both cognitive and behavior strategies by observing the behavior of others. We focus on modelling as one of social influence modes in the theory, followed by parent's evaluative reactions as a crucial aspect supporting the process.

Parents as Egalitarian Models
The egalitarian gender roles modelled by parents give a big impact on children, particularly in their early stage of development. Children are observers. They observe social sources through several modes, including modelling, which involves gender roles. These modelled roles are crucial to informing children which tasks they should perform in society. As women frequently perform homemaking activities, children are likely to associate them as a women's genderrelated role (Bussey & Bandura, 1999).
Families differ in modelling gender attributes and roles, alongside traditionaltyped family consisting of male breadwinner and female homemaker. Penn and Rosie, the characters of Claude's parents in this work, incline to raise their children in an egalitariantyped family in which both male and female hold equal roles. Not only that they convey information about it, but Penn and Rosie themselves also model these roles and perform activities that traditionally do not adjust their gender. Because men are in positions of authority, Rosie, as a woman, equalizes the position that she is a working mother and her husband Penn, on the other hand, is responsible for homemaking activities.
… If she needed to leave early for work, she needed to leave now. Penn pulled the shrimp from the grill and the rice from the pot, threw both in with the vegetables in the wok, combined sauce and beans, and dumped some of all of the above into a giant to-go container… (p. 5) The above excerpt indicates that Penn and Rosie are not playing traditional gender role models for their children. Although most occupational pursuits are gendered (Bussey & Bandura, 1999), Penn and Rosie break its values of traditional labour division. Studies revealed that parents, mainly wives, were more likely to realize the egalitarian values when they contribute more income to the family (Jiping & Tang, 2000;McHale & Crouter, 1992). It is assumed that fathers and mothers who performed egalitarian roles had less traditional attitudes of gender roles. Specifically, mothers who spend long hours at work like Rosie pull fathers more into daily family life and appear to reduce rigid sex differences (McHale et al., 2003).
"You should do a boy job," said Roo. "They pay better." "Why?" said Claude. "The hedge enemy." Ben didn't even look up. "Most jobs aren't boy jobs or girl jobs," said Penn. "Most jobs are open to either." (p. 77) From the very beginning, Penn and Rosie have revealed that occupations are not gendered, and their gender standards display the equal division for both men and women. As asserted by Bussey (2011), societal gender roles are not static. They can change, and people potentially transform their gender standards depending on the values that they believe and contemplate to the dynamic gender roles. Emrich et al. (2004) assert that the gendered construction of work is less evident in societies with gender egalitarianism. It also means that traditional gender roles and stereotypes are given more emphasis in less egalitarian cultures. Thus, the more Penn and Rosie perform egalitarian gendered labor division, the less traditional gender stereotypes affects it.
Accordingly, as Penn and Rosie do not engage in traditional demands of gender roles, their process of modelling takes part in influencing the early stage of Claude's gender identity development. As parents and home are the first environments for him, he first learns by observing the roles performed by Penn and Rosie. For Claude, homemaking is unlikely only for women. Homemaking is not gendered because his mother does not engage in activities such as housework or child care. Instead, he observes his father responsible for that role. One study examined that the division of parents' housework predicted their children's participation later in household works. Fathers' involvement in stereotypically feminine roles may predict sons' involvement in a similar type of roles in their adulthood (Cunningham, 2001).
By observing, Claude recognizes a value that no gender differentiation firmly adheres to his family. He overlooks traditional gender roles constructed by the society around for his parents dominantly take part as a social reference, as the data below highlights.
"He hasn't learned traditional gender roles at home. He's not failing to conform-there's nothing to conform to. He's not subverting sex-based expectations because we don't have any sex-based expectations." "I have a few." "We might not be good role models," Penn breathed. (p. 36) As argued by Penn, when Claude is exploring the feminine roles he should not attach to, it is unlikely that he fails to conform his gender roles as a boy. Claude has not entirely tied to traditional norms of being a proper boy. His parents themselves do not perform the significance of gender-linked conduct which, in turn, affects Claude's gender identity development. As a matter of fact, at the course of toddlerhood (between 2-3 years old), he is supposed to comprehend the different roles between men and women through observing the models (Bussey, 2011).
When Claude learns that his parents do not employ vital gender roles, and he learns that men are not always attached to masculine performance, this process of modelling contributes an impact for his self-standards he regulates.
Since self-standards are strengthened by a traditional view of gender conformity, then Claude loses the reinforcement. Bussey and Bandura support it by stating that if parents teach gender egalitarianism instead of modelling traditional roles, the regulations of self-standard lose their force (Bussey & Bandura, 1992).
Besides, gender egalitarianism modelled by parents is influential for children's gender labelling, which is more prominent in gender-typed families (Fagot et al., 1992;Stennes et al., 2005). Unlike most children at his age who strongly label their own selves as 'I am a boy' or 'I am a girl', Claude has trouble for labelling his gender identity. One of the factors influencing is, Claude observes that there are no masculine roles which make him being 'a proper boy' in societal view. There is a lack of gender differentiation and stereotypes, which play a pivotal role to strengthen the labelling of gender.
"Roo, in this family of all families, you'd think you'd have a better handle on the absurdity of gender stereotyping." (p.168) It demonstrates how Penn and Rosie as parents share egalitarian perspectives on the roles that society assigned to their children. They do not reinforce Claude to conform the stereotypes that society expect him as a boy, as studies found that mother who had stronger gender stereotypes made more comments confirming those stereotypes and evaluate the inconsistent gendered behaviours more negatively than those mothers with egalitarian ones (Endendijk et al., 2014;Friedman et al., 2007), In addition to gender roles, Penn and Rosie are considered egalitarian in sexual orientation and gender identity. Instead of looking up to heterenormativity norms, they prefer being tolerant to other sexual orientations or the other identity outside the gender binary, as revealed in the data below.
"Well, he's only five," said Penn, "but if he's gay, what's the problem with that?" (p.170) "In kindergarten, a child can only be a he or a she, a boy or a girl. Kindergartens are not set up for ambiguity." "Maybe they should be," said Penn. "The world is an ambiguous place." (p.56) What the character says in the above sentence means that Penn, as a father, neglects that LGBT values opposed to traditional means are oversights. Likewise, Penn taught this view to his children, including Claude, through modelling bedtime story which he told them every night. Penn is good at making and arranging a magical fiction that is not only meant to entertain, but also to convey the information and meaning related to Claude's problem. He tends to create a fictional character as a representation of Claude, as shown in the data below.
They did not know she could fly and light stars. They thought her hair was neon green only because she was just that cool.
She felt bad about lying to them, but she did not want to risk losing them by telling the truth, which was easy. If she wore a T-shirt when they went swimming, if she always changed in the bathroom, they never saw her without a top on so her wings were hidden (p. 158) The story of Princess Stephanie, who hides her identity as a night fairy, is the representation of Claude, who hides his identity as a girl. Penn considers the meaning of 'a boy who becomes a girl' is similar to 'a fairy who can fly and light the stars'; something magical, beautiful, and incredible that her ordinary friends cannot understand. This story made up by Penn indicates what he thinks of Claude's gender identity development, that his interest to be a girl is worth and being a girl is not at all an embarrassment.
"…Princess Stephanie, on the other hand, had lots of girlfriends…" (p. 158) Also, in the story, Penn shows that the fictional character of Princess Stephanie has lots of girlfriends, which is traditionally opposed to the norms of heteronormativity. Penn delivers the information to his children that such sexual orientation is normal. Pen believes that men being interested in other men or women being interested in other women is accepted, though Claude is likely too young to understand it.
However, as he remains a young boy at his early age of gender identity development, he still actively observes what is modelled by his father and absorbs its conception. In this context, parental beliefs may influence the development of gender over the long term (McHale et al., 2003). One study investigated that, when fathers had more traditional views of gender, their young children likely had more advanced knowledge of gender stereotypes and gender identity (Weinraub et al., 1984). Similar results were generated by the study of Turner and Gervai (1995), stating that children actualized less gender-typed schemas in less traditional roles. Also, this fathers' nontraditionality was related more to feminine play by both boys and girls (McHale et al., 2003).

Attention to Female Model
Children do observe both genders modelled, and if there are social sanctions related to gendered conduct, they tend to frequently choose models of their own gender to pay more attention to (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). It occurs due to gender conformity enforcement. In other words, modelling of gender differentiation plays a pivotal role to highlight the significance of gender when the conduct displayed by male and female is accompanied by social approval and disapproval. The displays not solely convey information about the stereotypes of gender, but also strengthen the significance of gender identity and further acquire gender stereotypes and be influenced by them (Bussey & Bandura, 1999).
Penn and Rosie do not enforce the significance of gender, and this affects the way Claude pays attention to modelled gender. Instead of choosing his father with the same gender, Claude tends to look more to his mother whose gender is different from him. He, for example, favours his mother as a role model and regards her as a criterion.
"Are there girl farmers and girl scientists?" said Claude. "Of course," said Rosie. "I'm a girl scientist." "That's what I want to be then," said Claude decisively. "A girl scientist. When I'm a girl scientist, can I wear a dress to work?" (p.42) Claude prefers his mother as a model that he intends to imitate when he grows up. While most boys generally adore male models who prominently perform the value of masculinity, Claude is more interested in the female model. This interest is possibly influenced by less strong gender stereotypic view that he does not learn from the role of both genders. Social sanctions such as a ban or disapproval that regulate the development of his gender identity might be a reliable reason for him to take models who conform the stereotypic gender roles and avoid such negative consequences. Parents can give social sanctions through evaluative reactions in the forms of rewarding and punishments.
Furthermore, the previous data exhibit Claude's interest to be a girl scientist. It also implies that Rosie's modelled activities as a scientist have an impact on him. One study examines that children's observing their mothers engaging in scientific or technological activities report can influence their selfefficacy beliefs to engage in scientific pursuits as well. Thus, when Claude observes Rosie and considers her as a model, he then develops his beliefs about his own abilities (Zeldin & Pajares, 2000).
One of the useful sources in the regulation of self-efficacy beliefs is vicarious experiences, especially social modelling. Gender is a crucial basis of similarity between models and observers. The greater that similarity, the more observer's self-efficacy will increase through watching the model succeed. Therefore, observers like Claude likely boost their efficacy to perform tasks, although those linked to the other gender.
He was wearing a dress. He was wearing a ball gown and four-inch heels. He had long brown hair or long blond hair or long purple hair or long rainbow hair. Sometimes he had a tail like a mermaid. Sometimes he had a silver necklace like his mother's. (p.34) The data above demonstrate the changes of Claude at the age of preschool years when he is more fascinated to perform himself as a girl. He wears his mother's dresses to play and sleep, and he is not even intended to take it off for school. Assuming that there is no other female model in his family because all the siblings are boys, then Rosie is the only one he determines as a model, a standard, and a role for him to imitate. Claude even wears the same silver necklace as his mother's, showing that he indeed emulates her gendered performance. Nevertheless, the process of modelling between Rosie and Claude is not merely a mimicry.
When Claude observes and imitates Rosie as his female model, he develops his selfevaluative standards, as emphasized by Bandura (1986) that children's self-evaluative standards are influenced by models to which they have been exposed. The phase of Claude's performance, like his mother's, is not the process that may end up anytime. However, this process affects his gender identity development, in which his self-standards is also formed when he observes the modelled information and commit it to memory. Because his family is the environment with less genderdifferentiation, he is slightly to come up with it and rehearse modelled behaviour associated with his own gender (Bussey, 2011).
Another factor that likely influences Claude's attention to female model is social power. One experimental study of modelling seeks out that preschool children likely pattern behaviour of adults who possessed social power. Boys commonly favour their male models for they have higher social power than female models (Bandura & McDonald, 1963;Bussey & Bandura, 1984). However, when female possess power over rewarding resources, boys may tend to adapt their behaviour.
As understood from some previous data above, Rosie is a working mom who makes a living for his family. She holds the power of rewarding resources, a power that traditionally belongs to men.
"And I'm worried about who I'll be when I grow up. A boy or a girl." Rosie closed her book. "You can be whichever one you want," she said carefully. "It's expensive to be a girl." "It is?" "Because of the hegemony. Boys make more money than girls." Rosie's expression split the difference between impressed and concerned. "I make more money than Daddy." "You do?" Her parents both nodded. "But it's because you do a boy job." "Doctor's not a boy job." Rosie thought about the lopsided politics of her practice. (p. 45) The data highlights that Claude begins to concern with the social power between both gender, and he learns that his mother earns more money than his father. As Claude asserts that it perhaps due to a boy job, he already has an awareness from the environment outside his house that men possess higher power status, so they are paid more than women. However, as his parents teach him the egalitarian view, he observes that Rosie has capabilities and power that are not traditionally adhered to women. The condition affects his inclination to consider his mother as a model to emulate.
Furthermore, a study investigates that when the boys of 25 months are exposed to female models who engage in male and female stereotyped activities, they lean on malestereotyped activities more than femalestereotyped ones (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Because his mother is engaged in more male stereotypically activities than his father, Claude pays more attention to her as she also possesses higher social power in the family. The early study conducted by Hetherington (1965) strengthened this idea as he found that a child might decide to imitate the opposite-sex parent if that model is more influential than the same-sex one.
As one of the processes governing modelled behaviour is a motivational process, Rosie motivates his son during the moment he observes her. Children are likely motivated to emulate behaviours which produce valued outcomes (Bussey, 2011). When Claude imitates his mother as a female model, he feels motivated since he learns that it is valued. He learns that being like his mother is valued for there are no such things banned, and his parents support him to be anyone he intends to be. People become motivated by the success of those who are similar to themselves, but they unlikely to take actions or behaviours that result in negative consequences.
Accordingly, according to social cognitive theory, the process of modelling points up more the social learning processes of reinforcement and punishment. In general, this theory declares that children are more likely to perform certain gendered behaviours again in the future if they are rewarded instead of being punished. On that matter, the evaluative reactions people express to their own gendered conduct regulate which observationally learned roles they are most possibly to play. In the social cognitive view of gender identity, gender-linked conduct is initially regulated by anticipated outcomes of how significant others, including parents, are expected to respond to various performances of gendered conduct (Bussey, 2011). Thus, the emergence of Claude's gender identity is a gradual process, and his parents take part in developing his gender conception before he is increasingly able to regulate his behaviour according to it.
Hence when Claude plays specific female roles or performs himself with female attributes like his mother, and his parent shows reward or encouragement, then the impact of modelling is strengthened.
Claude wore his bikini because Penn found he could not say to his son, "The suit you love is okay at home but not in public," because Rosie would not say, "We're proud of you in private but ashamed of you at the pool." "You know," Penn said carefully, so carefully, "you could wear a dress or a skirt to school if you wanted. It would be okay." "No, it wouldn't," said Claude. Rosie felt her eyes produce actual tears of relief that Claude didn't leap at this chance immediately. But she persisted anyway. "Sure, it would." "The other kids would make fun of me." Claude's eyes were full too. "That's true," Penn admitted. "They would. But that would be okay. They wouldn't mean it. They would make fun of you for a day or two then forget all about you and make fun of something else." (p.33) It is apparent that Claude begins to grasp the construction of gender and how society gives its sanctions. He observes that the dress is not for boys, and his preschool mates will laugh at him if he wears it. However, by fully encouraging and supporting, Penn and Rosie offer him an acceptance. Penn and Rosie do not enforce that only girls wear dresses. They assure that Claude can wear a dress or bikini and they would still love them. In other words, they promote positive self-appraisal and wellbeing (Witt & Wood, 2010).
When Claude is informed that it is not problematic to wear girl's clothing or act like girls, he develops his own gender-linked personal standards which affect his selfregulation process (Bandura, 1986;Bussey & Bandura, 1999). There are three components involved in self-regulation processes, and one of them is self-monitoring. When children can consider social significance related to gender, they monitor their behaviour increasingly on this basis (Serbin & Sprafkin, 1986).
Because boys are generally more sanctioned than girls when they do not conform to their gendered conduct, they likely monitor their gendered behaviours rather than girls do. Claude, on the other hand, is not sanctioned for not conforming his gender stereotypes, and it results in less selfmonitoring. He overlooks personal standards that value gender-relatedness, and he does not need to behave similarly to others of his gender (Bussey & Bandura, 1999).
Parents do not suspend influencing their children until they are able to categorize themselves as a male or female, but they have influenced since the early outset of children's development (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Accordingly, Rosie misinterprets her own assumption that she and Penn contribute nothing to Claude's gender identity development, as shown in the following data.
"You, um … turned your son into a girl?" Frank finally managed. "Not turned him into." As with so many disasters, it seemed the only way forward was deeper. "More like accepted who he-shealready was." (p.152) The data suggests that Rosie presumes that her evaluative reaction is an acceptance for who his son already is. However, when Claude wears a pink dress at three years old, for instance, it is unlikely that he already prescribes himself as a female trapped in male body. Children, in fact, choose gendered activities or objects before they are knowledgeable about gender stereotypes or even have a conception of their own gender (Bussey & Bandura, 1999).
So, for a few years, she was Claude. He was Claude. We thought she was Claude. When he wanted to wear dresses, well, at first I guess we thought it was just a phase. But it turned out it wasn't a phase. Deep down, he feels like a girl. She feels like a girl. She is a girl. So that's what we did." (p. 223) From the previous data, the process that Penn and Rosie assume as only 'phase' is influential in developing and regulating Claude's self-efficacy beliefs for gender conception. As previously explained that gender identity is a gradual process, Claude's gender identity is seen as not fixed or stable. It is because there are influences exercised through sociocognitive motivators, particularly social consequences (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Approval, acceptance, reward, or any positive consequence offered by Penn and Rosie not only convey information about the potential outcomes of Claude's actions, but they also provide motivational incentives for choosing specific courses of action (Bandura, 1986;Bussey & Bandura, 1999).
Furthermore, social persuasion helps to contribute an impact on his self-efficacy beliefs, which refers to Claude's ability to think and act in specific ways (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). This social persuasion from his parent is one of the four sources (mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and physiological and emotional states) synthesized to construct those beliefs (Bandura, 1997). However, as demonstrated by the previous data, instead of actively encouraging their son to engage in samegendered activities by stating that those are activities only boys can perform, Penn and Rosie encourage and permit Claude to engage in feminine activities. Thus, there is a lower difference in his self-efficacy beliefs, and this likely affects how Claude does not conform to his gender.
"Remember when we said you could bake cakes and play with dolls and have pink things, and that did not make you a girl…" (p. 42) Wearing a dress did not make him a girl, but neither did bearing a penis make him a boy if that's not what he was or wanted to be, though if it was what he was and wanted to be, he was welcome to be it and still wear a dress if he liked. (p. 65) Her job wasn't to educate them. Her job was just to raise her kid, all her kids. And work to feed them all. As she and Penn kept telling Claude, you don't have to like everyone. Find who's fun and smart and safe, and stick with them. (p. 66) The more children's self-conceptions are linked with gender, the more significant the difference in their self-efficacy beliefs to successfully perform activities that are stereotypically associated with their own gender than the other one (Matsui et al., 1989). Claude, at his five years age, has learned from his parent that wearing a dress or playing dolls do not make him a girl and bearing a penis does not make him a boy as well. He has learned that such kinds of activities are not gendered for there are no instructive social means. Penn and Rosie do not convey the significance of gender conception. For Claude, gender has less impact on the development of his self-conceptions than it has for others (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). He is unlikely being successful for performing activities that are associated stereotypically with his gender.
If taking activities of 'boy things' and 'girl things' have no different social effects, gender labelling will lose their significance. What makes gender typing remain prominent is when it makes a big difference in someone's life experiences (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Accordingly, Claude is not tied to the compulsion of taking male activities. He then loses the significance of labelling himself as a boy. It indicates that social perspectives of gendered objects and activities are crucial enough, as gender identity itself is a collective category shaped by surroundings (Bussey, 2011). That is why humans and their gender are partly the product of their environment.

CONCLUSION
This study has shown that parental influence plays a pivotal role in the character Claude's gender identity development. The finding indicates that, as the theory highlights, the process of parents' modelling conveys the information and contribute to the formation of Claude's gender identity. The first point of the modelling aspect learned by Claude is through egalitarian gender roles and orientation performed by Penn and Rosie. By observing his parents who do not engage in traditional demands of gender roles, Claude learns that there is no strong gender differentiation in his family, and he loses the reinforcement due to his lower gender self-standards. Another point is that the parents are open to nonheterosexual orientation and model this view regularly so that Claude is probably influenced for not conforming traditional norms of heteronormativity.
Furthermore, by giving attention to a female model, Claude tends to look more to his mother whose gender is different from him. He prefers his mother as a model of whom he intends to be as he grows up, i.e. a girl scientist. He observes his mother engaging in scientific or technological activities, and it influences his self-efficacy beliefs to engage in scientific pursuits as well. Because his mother engages more in male stereotypically activities and earns more money than his father, Claude takes his mother as a preferred gender model.
Besides, the observational learning from parents as models is strengthened by the evaluative reactions expressed in forms of rewards or punishments. Penn and Rosie allow Claude to be anything he intends to be whatsoever. They indirectly deliver a basic understanding that being a girl is not a mistake. As Claude starts wearing a dress, they do not express disapproval or punishment for his own choice. When he is informed that it is not problematic to wear girl's clothing or act like girls, he develops his own gender-linked personal standards which affect his selfregulation process.
In consequence, He overlooks personal standards that value gender-relatedness, and he feels that he must behave similarly to others of his gender. Penn and Rosie provide motivational incentives for Claude's choice upon specific courses of presumably female actions.