Understanding Childhood Social Transitions in Gender Diverse Youth

Abstract

Social transitions are the process of changing one’s name, pronouns, hairstyle, and clothing in order to live in line with one’s gender identity. Whether social transitions are indicated in young, pre-pubertal children who express that they are transgender has long been the topic of discussion. One hypothetical benefit of social transitions is that they may improve a child’s mental health, while a risk is that children who socially transition may later change their minds, necessitating potentially distressing retransitions. In this dissertation, I (along with colleagues) used prospective data to compare parent-reported anxiety and depression symptoms before vs. after children socially transitioned. Next, I identified themes from qualitative interviews completed with youth (and their parents) who retransitioned after childhood social transitions. The results of these studies, as well as their implications for clinical practice, are discussed.