American transgender children who are allowed to live openly as the gender they identify have positive mental health. This is according to a new study that suggests parental support is the key to lessening the higher rates of depression and anxiety among transgender kids in the United States.
ABC News reported that a new study published in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics shows that transgender children who are supported by their parents to be themselves have normal levels of depression and only slightly elevated levels of anxiety. Researchers say that allowing transgender children to change their names, hairstyle, clothing, as well as using pronouns that matched their gender identity could obstruct mental health problems.
The researchers, led by University of Washington assistant professor of psychology Kristina Olson, assessed and compared the mental health of 73 socially transitioned transgender children with 73 nontransgender youngsters. They found out that the rates of depression and anxiety between the two groups were equal.
The study results are considered significant due to the growing number of parents who are permitting their children to undergo social transition. The researchers, however, noted that the study is small and cannot confirm that social transitioning improves mental health outcomes for transgender children.
In an article on The Guardian, Dr. Ilana Sherer, assistant medical director at the University of San Francisco's Child and Adolescent Gender Center Clinic, considered the recent findings as crucially important. "Olson and colleagues give supporters of social transition evidence that shows what we have suspected all along: that socially transitioned children are doing fine, or at least as well as their age-matched peers and siblings," she explained.
Sarah Painer, a social worker at the Transgender Health Clinic at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, commented that the study is reflective of what she has seen in practice. "I think more research like this will hopefully help the world see that this can be a good thing - to let our kids be who they are."
