Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria

Abstract

PurposeIn on-line forums, parents have been reporting that their children are experiencing what is described here as “rapid-onset gender dysphoria,” appearing for the first time during puberty or even after its completion. The onset of gender dysphoria seemed to occur in the context of belonging to a peer group where one, multiple, or even all of the friends have become gender dysphoric and transgender-identified during the same timeframe. Parents also report that their children exhibited an increase in social media/internet use prior to disclosure of a transgender identity. The purpose of this study was to document and explore these observations and describe the resulting presentation of gender dysphoria, which is inconsistent with existing research literature.MethodsRecruitment information with a link to a 90-question survey, consisting of multiple-choice, Likert-type and open-ended questions, was placed on three websites where parents had reported rapid onsets of gender dysphoria. Website moderators and potential participants were encouraged to share the recruitment information and link to the survey with any individuals or communities that they thought might include eligible participants to expand the reach of the project through snowball sampling techniques. Data were collected anonymously via SurveyMonkey. Quantitative findings are presented as frequencies, percentages, ranges, means and/or medians. Open-ended responses from two questions were targeted for qualitative analysis of themes.ResultsThere were 256 parent-completed surveys that met study criteria. The adolescent and young adult (AYA) children described were predominantly female sex at birth (82.8%) with a mean age of 16.4 years. Forty-one percent of the AYAs had expressed a non-heterosexual sexual orientation before identifying as transgender. Many (62.5%) of the AYAs had been diagnosed with at least one mental health disorder or neurodevelopmental disability prior to the onset of their gender dysphoria (range of the number of pre-existing diagnoses 0–7). In 36.8% of the friendship groups described, the majority of the members became transgender-identified. The most likely outcomes were that AYA mental well-being and parent-child relationships became worse since AYAs “came out”. AYAs expressed a range of behaviors that included: expressing distrust of non-transgender people (22.7%); stopping spending time with non-transgender friends (25.0%); trying to isolate themselves from their families (49.4%), and only trusting information about gender dysphoria from transgender sources (46.6%).ConclusionRapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) describes a phenomenon where the development of gender dysphoria is observed to begin suddenly during or after puberty in an adolescent or young adult who would not have met criteria for gender dysphoria in childhood. ROGD appears to represent an entity that is distinct from the gender dysphoria observed in individuals who have previously been described as transgender. The worsening of mental well-being and parent-child re...

Methodological Critique of Littman’s (2018) Parental-Respondents Accounts of “Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria”

“…Principles of research methods necessitate that a study's design must be appropriate to the aims of the study and the context of the phenomenon (Cozby, 2012;Ruane, 2005). In Littman's case, the majority of methodological and design issues stem from the use of a pathologizing framework and language of pathology to conceive, describe, and theorize the phenomenon as tantamount to both an infectious disease ("cluster outbreaks of gender dysphoria") and a disorder (e.g., "eating disorders and anorexia nervosa") (Littman, 2018). Consequentially, the study design and interpretation of the results are framed with this pathology framework.…”

“…Specifically, the article begins with the premise of conceptualizing gender dysphoria and trans identification as partly a consequence of "social and peer contagion" that "spreads of affect or behaviors through a popula-tion… [and] where an individual and peer mutually influence each other in a way that promotes emotions and behaviors that can potentially undermine their own development or harm others" (Littman, 2018). The article continues to pathologize gender dysphoria and affirmation of trans identification through social network peers and online environments as an example of "deviancy training," and describing it as an unhealthy pattern of reinforcement with trans-identified peers and linking it with a behavior that is "deceiving parents and doctors" (Littman, 2018). The pathologizing lens used by Littman to study this gender dysphoria-related phenomenon speaks to the researcher's a priori bias that is manifested in the construction of measurements and methodologies deliberately chosen to investigate this phenomenon.…”

“…Self-selection is a type of bias that, when introduced in the survey, motivates participants (i.e., parental-respondents) to elect themselves into the study such that this selection is different from the study enrollment criteria (Bethlehem, 2010;Cozby, 2012;Delgado-Rodriguez & Llorca, 2004;Ruane, 2005). Littman (2018) describes the "social and peer contagion" premise extensively at the beginning of the consent document: This phenomenon is "in the context of increased social media/Internet use and/ or being part of a peer group in which one or multiple friends have developed gender dysphoria and come out as transgender during a similar time frame. Several parents have described situations where entire friend groups became gender dysphoric."…”

“…Reliance on retrospective reports is another reason for why parental-respondents accounts of "ROGD" is methodologically inappropriate for examining this phenomenon (Hardt & Rutter, 2004). Littman (2018) asked parents to recall their children's behavior both in childhood and in their current age. On average, there were at least 6 years for parents to remember between their child's "childhood" and current age.…”

Science and Homosexuality: Political Bias in Modern Academia

“…Similar pressure from LGBT activists is related to the publication of Dr. Lisa Littman, an assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences at Brown University. Dr. Littman studied the reasons for the surge of "rapid-onset gender dysphoria" among youth and concluded that their sudden drive to transition might spread through peers and may be a harmful coping mechanism [70]. Before declaring themselves transgenders, teenagers watched videos about transition, communicated with transgender people on social networks and read transgender resources.…”