This qualitative study examined experiences with health and social service institutions and experiences related to education, employment, and other social networks among 18 ethnically diverse, male to female (MTF) transgender youth aged 16 to 24 years. Participants were recruited from a youth health clinic where they were receiving services for their transgender/transsexual identity. In-depth, semi-structured interviews explored youths' patterns of service utilization, reasons for seeking care, beliefs about the usefulness of services received, experiences with service providers, barriers to care, and suggestions for improving services tailored to them. Similar to other studies with this population, participants described a multitude of health and social risk experiences as well as complex needs related to healthcare, education, employment, housing, personal relationships, and safety. Results suggest a mixed pattern of both positive and negative experiences within the medical, social and mental health services arenas. To improve support for transgender youth and assist in their positive development, it is essential to improve and expand the availability of culturally competent and effective services for this population.

ransgender individuals are people whose self-identification as male, female, both, or neither (gender identity) does not match their assigned gender (identification by others as male or female based on natal sex). The phenomenon of transgender is uncommon, but as more media attention is directed toward the subject, more adolescents and young adults are "coming out" at an earlier age. Transgender adolescents are an underserved and poorly researched population that has very specific medical and mental health needs. Primary care physicians are in a unique and powerful position to promote health and positive outcomes for transgender youth. While not all transgender adolescents desire phenotypic transition to match their gender and physical body, most do. The process of transitioning is complex and requires the involvement of both a mental health therapist specializing in gender and a physician. Finding comprehensive medical and mental health services is extremely difficult for these youth, who are at risk for multiple psychosocial problems including family and peer rejection, harassment, trauma, abuse, inadequate housing, legal problems, lack of financial support, and educational problems. This review supports and describes timely medical intervention to achieve gender/body congruence paired with affirmative mental health therapy as an appropriate approach to minimize negative health outcomes and maximize positive futures for transgender adolescents.

Purpose: Parental acceptance of gender identity/expression in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) youth moderates the effects of minority stress on mental health outcomes. Given this association, mental health clinicians of gender-expansive adolescents often assess the degree to which these youth perceive their parents/primary caregivers as accepting or nonaffirming of their gender identity and expression. While existing measures may reliably assess youth's perceptions of general family support, no known tool aids in the assessment an adolescent's perceived parental support related to adolescent gender-expansive experiences.Methods: To provide both clinicians and researchers with an empirically derived tool, the current study used factor analysis to explore an underlying factor structure of a brief questionnaire developed by subject-matter experts and pertaining to multiple aspects of perceived parental support in gender-expansive adolescents and young adults. Respondents were gender-expansive adolescents and young adults seeking care in an interdisciplinary gender-health clinic within a pediatric academic medical center in the Midwestern United States.Results: Exploratory factor analysis resulted in a 14-item questionnaire comprised of two subscales assessing perceived parental nonaffirmation and perceived parental acceptance. Internal consistency and construct validity results provided support for this new questionnaire.Conclusion: This study provides preliminary evidence of the factor structure, reliability and validity of the Parental Attitudes of Gender Expansiveness Scale for Youth (PAGES-Y). These findings demonstrate both the clinical and research utility of the PAGES-Y, a tool that can yield a more nuanced understanding of family-related risk and protective factors in gender-expansive adolescents.

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Implications for Impact StatementThe Parental Attitudes of Gender Expansiveness Scale for Parents includes four subscales: (a) support and affirmation, (b) guilt and loss, (c) gender concealment, and (d) pride. This questionnaire can be used clinically to identify parents who may benefit from intervention to better support their transgender and gender expansive children.