A new study published by the Society for Research in Child Development reveals that transgender youth are just as consistent in their gender identity as their cisgender peers, Pink News reports.
The research, spanning from 2013 to 2024 and involving over 900 young people across North America, found that more than 80% of participants—both cis and trans—remained comfortable with their expressed gender identity throughout the study.
Notably, trans youth who transitioned in childhood showed no higher likelihood of regret than cisgender youth.
When changes in identity did occur, they were more often shifts toward non-binary identification rather than a return to birth-assigned gender.
Researchers emphasized that these findings challenge outdated assumptions in developmental psychology and debunk the discredited theory of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), which falsely claims youth transition due to social contagion.
More here.
See also: Stability and Change in Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Across Childhood and Adolescence in Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. Full report here.
Academic conclusion from the report
By Benjamin E. deMayo, Natalie M. Gallagher, Rachel A. Leshin, and Kristina R. Olson
“We have presented a detailed quantitative portrait of gender identity and sexual orientation over time in a sample of over 900 North American youths studied between 2013 and early 2024.
Gender identity tended to be a stable trait across development for the vast majority of youths (>80.0%), including those who were supported in a social gender transition during childhood.
These early‐identifying transgender youths were no more or less likely to show gender change than their siblings or an unrelated comparison group of youths who were recruited into the study as cisgender children.
The gender change we did observe among both early‐identifying transgender and initially cisgender participants is suggestive of a potentially major shift among North American youth in thinking about gender as a concept that is less anchored on binary options and flexible across time.
We also observed high rates (30.0%–60.0%) of queer romantic interest among adolescents who self‐report their sexual orientations.
Change in romantic interest over time was present in approximately 35% of youths who have reported on sexual orientation longitudinally, and many youths of all genders expressed interest in both boys and girls; these results again point to a substantial shift toward flexibility in thinking about gender and sexuality among today’s youth.
We conclude that two things are likely true about gender and sexual orientation in youth today: stability across development is the current modal pathway, regardless of whether one’s gender aligns with one’s assigned sex or not, and youth can and do change how they think about their identities, contrary to a major assumption present in decades of classic research in developmental psychology.
We hope these results will not only refine our field’s theories about how youth conceptualize the social identities of gender and sexual orientation but also inform broader societal understanding toward, and support of, gender diverse and sexual minority children and adolescents. ”
Photo: martinedoucet
