Garrison, MichellePham, An2020-08-142020-08-142020Pham_washington_0250O_21540.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1773/46025Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2020Body dissatisfaction is a common factor of gender dysphoria and eating disorders. Previous studies have found a higher risk of eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors among TGNB youth in comparison to their cisgender peers. The aims of this study are to 1) contribute to the growing body of literature describing the prevalence of disordered eating among transgender and non-binary (TGNB) youth, 2) explore differences in disordered eating among gender identities of TGNB youth, and 3) explore longitudinal differences in disordered eating after the initiation of gender-affirming medical care. We recruited TGNB youth between the ages of 8-22 years old from Seattle Children’s Gender Clinic to complete surveys at baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months after establishing care in the multidisciplinary gender-affirming clinic. Surveys assessed disordered eating with questions from the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q). We calculated sociodemographic and prevalence results using descriptive statistics and the association of gender identity and gender-affirming care on disordered eating with multivariate linear regression. The final study included 108 participants with an average age of 15.4 years (SD 2.1). Sixty-two percent of participants identified as transmasculine, 31% transfeminine, and 7% as non-binary/gender fluid. A majority of our participants identified as white (70%) and enrolled in school (89%). Prevalence results found that a majority of participants demonstrated features of body dissatisfaction with 87% reporting any occurrence of being uncomfortable seeing their body. As for disordered eating behaviors, 15% of participants regularly limited their amount of food to influence their shape/weight and 16% reported regular occurrence of binging eating behaviors. Any occurrence of purging was reported by 7% of participants, laxative use 2%, and excessive exercise 14%. Multivariate linear regression analysis did not show a statistically significant difference in disordered eating when comparing gender identities and did not show a statistically significant difference in disordered eating with gender-affirming care. Our study confirms the presence of disordered eating thoughts and behaviors among TGNB youth, but additional follow-up studies are recommended to determine whether gender-affirming care has a long-term effect on disordered eating.application/pdfen-USnonePublic healthHealth servicesThesis