2018/08/16/Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults
- when: 2018/08/16
- author: Lisa Littman
- source: PLOS One
- topics: Rapid onset gender dysphoria
- keywords
- link: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202330
- title: Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults: A study of parental reports
- summary: In 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.
Significance
The paper itself seems valid, although there are some issues around the methodology; see the following for a critique:
- 2019-04-22 Methodological Critique of Littman's (2018) Parental-Respondents Accounts of "Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria" (Archives of Sexual Behavior 49, pages 61–66 (2020))
The paper does not claim or conclude that transgendrity is bogus; it's just saying that community seems to be a factor in a recent upswing in AFAB transitions.
This doesn't even necessarily mean that even those specific transitions are somehow only for-show, or fake; it could just as easily mean that it's now easier to do something that was once much harder, but no less necessary regardless. (h/t to Harena Atria for pointing this out)
Political Implications
Regardless of whether its methodology has issues, the paper does not appear to have been deliberately skewed by an anti-trans agenda.
The ScienceMag article rightly points out that the paper's conclusions will probably be misused by the Right to fuel anti-trans sentiment -- and Brown pulling the paper (whether rightly or wrongly) will further be used by the Right as proof of academic censorship and suppression of free speech in academia and on the Left. ...because, basically, the Right takes any opportunity to make the Left and academia look bad.