This is pretty obvious without any research (papers). The difference between my generation and our children is already staggering in this regard. Not sure if that's just change in culture or physiological though; maybe a bit of both?
A couple days ago I shared a NYT article with my wife because it was such a strange window into evolving gender standards [1] and the next day a friend of hers shared another story which took it to a whole new level [2].
I could not help but tie it all together in my mind with TFA and dropping testosterone levels, but god help me for admitting it here.
[1] - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/style/modern-love-he-aske...
[2] - https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/imagining...
Makes me a little ... queasy.
FWIW I’m not particularly bothered by the concept that a little kid may want to wear dresses. It’s just the tone in the story seems a bit ... not reputable.
Take myself for example, and imagine what that mother would have thought: Up until ~14 I wore various old shirts from my parents to bed and on weekends, which were long enough to look like a dress on me, but it had nothing to do with liking dresses. It had to do with regular clothes being too stifling to be comfortable on the weekend, pajamas being too warm, and me not having confidence to just go around in only underwear.
Kids don't put themselves in news articles. It's the parents who do it, but they always say the child spontaneously behaved that way.
Said every parent about their children's generation since the dawn of human civilization..[0], [1]
0. http://mentalfloss.com/article/52209/15-historical-complaint...
I see that young people today are absolutely behaving different than my generation but also than my parents and grandparents and great grandparents. I mean to say that my father, grandfathers and great grandfathers were all rather similar while they are all really different than the current generation. I think I like the current situation better. But yes, this needs solid studies if someone someone would be interested in finding the cause; not guessing or speculation.