Parent' Reactions to Transgender Youth' Gender Nonconforming Expression and Identity

Abstract

Fifty-five transgender youth described their gender development and expression, parents' reactions to their gender nonconformity, and initial and current mothers' and fathers' reactions to their transgender identity. All of the youth reported feeling different from others in early childhood. Forty-three of the participants' mothers and 26 of their fathers knew about their identities. The youth reported that 54% of their mothers and 63% of their fathers initially reacted negatively, and 50% of the mothers and 44% of their fathers reacted negatively at the time of the interviews, an average of 3 years later. The more gender nonconforming the youth, the more likely they reported that they were verbally and physically abused by their mothers and fathers. Implications of these findings for social service professionals are discussed.

Understanding the Experience of Parents of Pre-pubescent Children with Gender Identity Issues

“…Acceptance in this study seemed to be couched more in terms of how others might view and 'accept' their child, rather than how the parents themselves accepted their child which has been the reported findings of other research (Grossman et al, 2005;Hegedus, 2009 untypical. Given the often conflicting and ambiguous narrative presented in the interviews, there is a possibility that the concern about others accepting their child is in fact a projection of their own unwanted feelings.…”

“…Grossman et al (2005) found that the fathers who had been informed were more likely than the mothers to react negatively to their child's gender nonconformity, and the more extreme the nonconformity, the more likely the young person was to be verbally and physically abused by their parents.…”

Ervaren stigmatisering onder transgenderjongeren in Nederland

“…Zowel stigmatisering als negatieve ervaringen met familie en ouderlijke afwijzing zijn een mogelijke verklaring voor de moeilijkheden waar transgenderjongeren mee worden geconfronteerd (Grossman, D'Augelli, Howell, & Hubbard, 2005;Meyer, 2003). Daarnaast blijkt dat andere kinderen negatief reageren op atypisch gendergedrag (Signorella, Bigler, & Liben, 1993;Ruble et al, 2007;Smetana, 1986) en is bekend dat pestgedrag tijdens de kindertijd nega-tieve gevolgen heeft voor de ontwikkeling van het kind (Bond, Carlin, Thomas, Rubin, & Patton, 2001;Sourander et al, 2007).…”

L’expérience des parents d’un enfant d’orientation homosexuelle : savoirs issus des recherches et perspectives d’intervention

“…La négociation d'un passage vers cette nouvelle identité s'inscrit dans un processus d'adaptation (D'Augelli, 2005). Certaines études ont comparé ce processus à celui d'un deuil, évoquant le cadre d'analyse en cinq étapes développé à l'origine par Kübler-Ross (1969) où le choc, le déni, la colère et la négociation se succèdent pour mener finalement à l'acceptation.…”

“…Les recherches démontrent que l'acceptation et le soutien parental sont des facteurs de protection contre les effets négatifs de la victimisation sur le bien-être et la santé mentale des jeunes gais et lesbiennes (D'Augelli et al, 2005 ;Needham et Austin, 2010 ;Padilla et al, 2010). À cet égard, les parents ont un rôle important à jouer auprès de leur enfant (Goldfried et Goldfried, 2001).…”