Daily Dynamics of Individual and Collective (binary) Gender Ideals Impact Self-Perceptions and Mental Health over Time, for Both Gender-Conforming and Gender-Diverse Adults

Across two experience-sampling studies, “collective” binary gender ideals predicted the structure of self-perceptions for women (N=120), men (N=78), and even gender-diverse (N=82) North American adults. However, “idiosyncratic” ideals predicted self-perceptions only for gender-conforming adults. Intensive longitudinal modeling revealed that momentary ideal-self alignment improved concurrent well-being but could be costly later.