Parent Participation in a Support Group for Families with Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Children: “Being in the Company of Others Who Do Not Question the Reality of Our Experience”

Abstract

Purpose: Parent support is considered crucial for the health of transgender and gender-nonconforming (trans/GNC) children, yet little research has focused on how to support parents and caregivers. This study considered the experience of participation in a support group for parents of transgender children on families. Methods: Online surveys were conducted with parents whose children were receiving clinical care at a gender specialty clinic and who participated at least once in a monthly support group. Close-ended questions addressed the importance of participation and open-ended questions addressed the specific ways it was helpful, how it impacted them and their trans/GNC child, and if they faced barriers to participating. Results: The majority of the 48 participants (77.1%) identified as female. The mean age of their trans/GNC child was 13.9 years (standard deviation 5.1, range 5–22 years); just over half ( n =25) of their trans/GNC children identified as male. Participants overwhelmingly reported positive experiences with the support group, with 72.9% reporting that the group was either important or critically important to them and 66.7% reporting that it was important or critically important to their trans/GNC child. Perceived benefits included the opportunity to learn about legal, medical, and school issues and receive emotional support. Conclusion: Support groups provide an important complement to specialized clinical care for families with trans/GNC children. Logistical challenges, lack of age peers, and lack of people of color all served as limitations of the group. Further research is needed to understand the experiences of fathers and to determine if the support group model would be effective with racially/ethnically and economically diverse populations.

Evaluating transgender youth and parent interest and preferences regarding support groups

“…6 Although there is very little literature regarding support groups for transgender children or their parents, the few studies that do exist endorse these same benefits. 20,22 Respondents did not strongly voice concerns related to attending support groups, and the majority of barriers selected and listed by participants were relatively universal concerns associated with any group activity such as time constraints, conflicting obligations, cost, and transportation. Interestingly, the youth response for transportation as a barrier could be viewed as incongruent with the response that they would be willing to travel farther than parents (21-40 minutes for youth vs 11-20 minutes for parents); however, it is also possible that youth may be willing to travel farther but may not have the means or a vehicle with which to physically get to a support group.…”

Transición social en niñas, niños, niñes y adolescentes con incongruencia de género: revisión y sugerencias de intervención a profesionales

“…Estos hallazgos sugieren que la transición social y el apoyo familiar necesario para iniciarla, favorecen la salud mental de las (os, es) niñas (os, es) y adolescentes con incongruencia de género (Olson et al, 2016;Wong & Drake, 2017), pueden ser factores protectores de la depresión y ansiedad, junto a estar asociados a una alta satisfacción con la vida (Wong & Drake, 2017;Hillier & Torg, 2019). Cuando se es parte de una familia y ambiente que apoya, se observa resiliencia y adecuada salud mental (Tomicic et al, 2016;Aramburu, 2018;Barrientos et al, 2019) y por el contrario el rechazo familiar aumenta a ocho veces más la probabilidad de que un adolescente con incongruencia de género intente suicidarse (Tomicic et al, 2016).…”

“…Las familias poseen sus propias normas y expectativas, las cuales han sido creadas a través de la continuidad de las interacciones, pero cuando un miembro de la familia manifiesta conductas que se encuentran fuera de las normas establecidas, las dinámicas relacionales se alteran y las expectativas se desestabilizan (Aramburu, 2018). Desde la teoría de sistemas familiares, en un proceso de transición se deben abordar las necesidades de las madres, padres y cuidadores así como las necesidades de las(os, es) hijas(os, es), debido a que la transición de una(o, e) niña(o, e) y adolescente con incongruencia de género requiere que las familias renegocien su nueva identidad, replanteen adecuadas relaciones familiares (Hillier & Torg, 2019) y creen nuevos significados y percepciones (Wagner & Armstrong, 2020), con el objetivo de crear una estabilidad (Aramburu, 2018) que traerá consigo un crecimiento personal para toda la familia (Aramburu, 2018).…”

“…Muy poca investigación se ha focalizado en las experiencias familiares (Kuvalanka et al, 2014;Dierckx et al, 2015;Aramburu, 2018) y cómo intervenir en el apoyo a las madres, padres y cuidadores (Hillier & Torg, 2019). Pese a ello, existen estudios que han descrito las distintas reacciones en las familias de hijas (os, es) con incongruencia de género (Tabla 2).…”

“…Dentro de las necesidades de apoyo, se encuentra el comunicarse con personas que hayan experimentado una situación similar y poder compartir experiencias (Kuvalanka et al, 2014;Dierckx et al, 2015). Estos espacios de acompañamiento pueden ser grupales, donde se puede dar la oportunidad de aprender sobre asuntos legales, medicos, escolares y recibir apoyo emocional (Hillier & Torg, 2019).…”