Mental Health and Self-Worth in Socially Transitioned Transgender Youth
/Socially transitioned youth do better than those who do not transition, and do not show higher level of depression or anxiety than their peers or siblings.
Published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. February 10, 2017. Authors: Lily Durwood, Katie A. McLaughlin, Kristina R. Olson.
“We found remarkably good mental health outcomes in socially transitioned transgender children in the present study. Transgender children reported normative rates of depression and slightly increased rates of anxiety. Rates of depression in transgender children did not differ significantly from those in siblings of transgender children or from those in age- and gender-matched controls, although rates of anxiety were marginally higher. Parents’ reports of their children’s depression and anxiety largely mirrored the children’s reports, although parents of transgender children reported slightly higher anxiety in their children than the children did…”
“Our findings of normative levels of depression, slightly higher rates of anxiety, and high self-worth in socially transitioned transgender children stand in marked contrast with previous work with gender-nonconforming children who had not socially transitioned. Those studies overwhelmingly reported markedly higher rates of anxiety and depression and lower self-worth, with disproportionate numbers of children in the clinical range.”