Gender non-conforming and trans youth experience high rates of bullying and victimization, placing them at risk for serious mental health challenges. Parent support is one of the most significant protective factors in this population, and yet few programs are specifically developed to promote parenting sensitivity, understanding, and acceptance. Connect, a trauma-informed and attachment-based group program for caregivers of at-risk adolescents, has been shown to reduce parent stress and depressed mood, increase parents' sense of efficacy and satisfaction, and reduce parent-teen conflict. Teens benefit from increased attachment security and improved mental health and well-being. Treatment effects have been documented to continue for up to 2 years post-treatment. This paper describes the adaptation of the Connect program to create a new program, Transforming Connections, for caregivers of transgender and gender non-conforming youth. Participants in the first three groups were 20 parents of 16 gender non-conforming youth (ages 12–18). Common themes in group discussions related to gender included: coming out, connecting with peers, affirming pronouns/names, medical transition, parental reactions (e.g., confusion, isolation, grief, acceptance), and concerns about safety and mental health. All parents completed the full program, attending on average 9 of 10 sessions. Caregivers reported feeling respected, safe, and welcomed in the program and indicated that learning about attachment enhanced their understanding of their teen and their gender journey as well as themselves as a parent. Additionally, all parents reported applying the ideas discussed in the group frequently (60%) or somewhat frequently (40%). The majority indicated that their relationship with their teen had improved somewhat (65%) or a great deal (20%). Findings provide positive preliminary evidence of the fit and value of Transforming Connections for these families.

Interpersonal trust is the willingness to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations about another person’s behaviour. A breach in trust occurs when these expectations are not met. Apologies are one way to restore trusting relations and encourage forgiveness. Because past relationships may affect both trust development and forgiveness, I draw on psychological attachment theory for insight into the nature of people’s past relationships. A person may develop one of three attachment styles: secure, anxious, or avoidant. A secure style represents a normal healthy relationship, whereas anxious individuals cling to others and fear rejection and avoidant individuals are self reliant and distance themselves from others. This laboratory experiment tests the extent to which individuals with different attachment styles develop trust with a stranger, change their emotions and reported trust levels after the trust has been violated, and respond to an apology designed to repair trust. To develop trust in the laboratory, participants share information about themselves and complete an obstacle course while blindfolded. Trust violation then occurs during a planned activity early in the experiment, after which half of the participants receive an apology and the other half do not. Questionnaires then assess levels of emotion and trust, which are compared between individuals in the apology and no‐apology conditions. This research may help establish a close relationship between attachment style and trust violation and repair. Future research may look into other ways to repair trust, particularly for insecure individuals who may not respond positively to an apology.

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