Abstract
Although increasing numbers of children have socially transitioned to live in line with their gender identities, little is known about factors associated with their wellbeing. This study examines the associations between parent-reported family, peer, and school support for a youth’s gender identity, as well as an objective measure of state-level support, with parent-reported internalizing symptoms in 265 transgender youth (67.2% transgender girls, 32.8% transgender boys), ages 3–15 years (M = 9.41, SD = 2.62). Parents who reported higher levels of family, peer, and school support for their child’s gender identity also reported fewer internalizing symptoms; the objective measure of state-level support was not related to internalizing symptoms. Additionally, peer and school support buffered against the association between gender-related victimization and internalizing symptoms, as reported by parents. This work demonstrates that even among transgender youth with families who supported their transitions, parents see better well-being in their children when they also see more support for the child’s gender identity from family, peers, and schools.
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We thank Riley Lowe for assistance with data collection, Nandana Rao for assistance with data preparation, and the families for participating in this study.
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K.O. was responsible for funding acquisition and project administration. L.D., K.M., and K.O. shared responsibility for study conception and design. K.O., L.D., S.B., and C.J. shared responsibility for material preparation. Data analysis were conducted by L.E., L.D., and K.F. The first draft of the paper was written by L.D., edited by K.O., K.M., and L.E., and all authors read and approved the final paper.
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This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Grant HD092347 to K.R.O. and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to L.D.
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Because some key variables (e.g., state support) could be used, particularly in conjunction with other variables (e.g., race) to potentially identify participants, full data are not publicly available. However, the questions asked to participants are available at https://osf.io/fn37j/?view_only=97399257437c4ac9b7f91f5938296b5b. The data analysis code is available at https://osf.io/fn37j/?view_only=97399257437c4ac9b7f91f5938296b5b.
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Durwood, L., Eisner, L., Fladeboe, K. et al. Social Support and Internalizing Psychopathology in Transgender Youth. J Youth Adolescence 50, 841–854 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01391-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01391-y