Gender-Role Infantilism
Gender-role infantilism – a term used in certain psychological frameworks to describe persistent dependent or childlike patterns in the performance of gender-related and family roles that interfere with a person’s ability to participate in relationships as an autonomous and equal adult partner.
For example, within an intimate partnership, a person may repeatedly adopt the position of a dependent child and expect the other partner to assume a parental or caregiving role.
Gender-role infantilism should not be equated with gender nonconformity or with a person’s failure to follow conventional age- or gender-based expectations. The term is applicable only when such patterns restrict autonomy, create significant distress, or impair interpersonal functioning.
See also: Gender Role, Gender-Role Insufficiency, Gender Nonconformity.
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