Behavioral Adjustment, Emotional Adjustment, and Gender Development of Children with Transgender and Nonbinary Parents

• In Event: 1-209 - Rainbow Connections: Parent Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, Child Development, and Family Dynamics

Integrative Statement

Researchers know little about the development of children raised by transgender and gender nonbinary (TGNB) parents (Stotzer et al., 2014). This study had two major aims: (1) to describe children’s behavior, emotions, and gender development and their parents’ parenting stress and use of effective parenting techniques; and (2) to investigate predictors of child outcomes.
Participants were 188 transgender and gender nonbinary (TGNB) parents with at least one child under the age of 18. Recruitment of participants occurred through study advertisements posted on social media and online networking sites geared towards TGNB parents (see Table 1 for demographic information). Participants completed the Child Behavior Checklist Preschooler (1½-5 years of age) or School-Age (6-18 years of age; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000; 2001), which measured children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and the Pre-School Activities Inventory (Golombok & Rust, 1993), which measured children’s gendered interests and behaviors. The Parenting Stress Index–Short Form (Abidin, 1995) measured parental stress, and the Parenting Scale (Arnold et al., 1993) measured use of effective parenting techniques.

We compared the sample to population and clinical norms (see Table 2). For preschool-age children, internalizing, externalizing, and total problems all fell within the typical range and far below clinical levels (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). For school-age children, internalizing and externalizing problems were significantly higher in our sample than the population norms; however, these effects were small, far below clinical levels, and within typical range. On average, parents reported that children assigned female at birth exhibited stereotypically feminine interests and behaviors and that children assigned male at birth indicated less stereotypically masculine interests and behaviors than boys in the normed sample (Golombok & Rust, 1993).

In a one-way between-groups MANCOVA, we investigated parental gender identity, parenting stress, and use of effective parenting techniques as predictors of child internalizing and externalizing symptoms, controlling for parent age, SES, child sex assigned at birth, and child age. Child sex, parenting techniques, and parenting stress were the only significant predictors of the combined dependent variables. When considering the dependent variables separately, parenting techniques were no longer a significant predictor, and children assigned male at birth had just slightly higher externalizing symptoms than those assigned female, with child sex accounting for 4% of the variance. Parenting stress, however, was strongly and positively correlated with both internalizing and externalizing symptoms, accounting for 24-25% of the variance in each.

This is the first study of gender development and psychological adjustment among children with TGNB parents. Parents reported that their children exhibit typical gender development and psychological adjustment, with one exception: children assigned male at birth were less stereotypically masculine in their behaviors and interests than children in a normed sample. As in families with cisgender parents, parenting stress and child sex predicted children’s developmental outcomes, but parental gender identity did not. These results have implications for understanding of the role of parent gender identity in gender socialization, parental rights, and clinical practice with TGNB parents and their children.

Authors

• Samantha L. Tornello, Pennsylvania State University
  Presenting Author

• Rachel G Riskind, Guilford College
  Non-Presenting Author