Knowledge is Power: Trans Young People’s Perceptions of Parental Reactions to Their Gender Identity, and Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Parental Support

Abstract

Parental support is strongly correlated with protective factors for trans youth, however, most experience unsupportive parental attitudes. We aimed to better understand how youth perceive parental reactions to their gender identity disclosure and what they consider to be barriers to, and facilitators of, support. We qualitatively explored primary themes in semi-structured interviews (N = 14). Participants described a spectrum of initial parental reactions ranging from rejection to unconditional support. Barriers included lack of knowledge of gender diversity and parental isolation, stigma, and fear. Powerful facilitators included good-quality information, peer connection, and exposure to positive trans representation. Importantly, these facilitators commonly impacted positively upon initially unsupportive stances over time. Several implications are highlighted, particularly the pressing need for easily accessible, good-quality information, and exposure to peer support and positive trans representation.

Keywords:

• Transgender
• parental support
• adolescents
• gender identity
• gender diversity

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank our partner organizations for their assistance in study recruitment and the young people who participated in this research.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation “Healthway” [#33645]; DR is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship; A.L. is supported by an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship [#1148793]; PS is supported by a Suicide Prevention Australia Post-Doctoral Fellowship; Y.P. is supported by a fellowship from the Giorgetta Charity Fund.