title: An affirmative intervention for families with gender variant children: parental ratings of child mental health and gender.
abstract: This is a report on parents who have children who exhibit gender variant behaviors and who contacted an affirmative program in the United States for assistance. All parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist, the Gender Identity Questionnaire, and the Genderism and Transphobia Scale, as well as telephone interviews. The parents reported comparatively low levels of genderism and transphobia. When compared to children at other gender identity clinics in Canada and The Netherlands, parents rated their children's gender variance as no less extreme, but their children were overall less pathological. Indeed, none of the measures in this study could predict parents' ratings of their child's pathology. These findings support the contention that this affirmative program served children who were no less gender variant than in other programs, but they were overall less distressed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, Staten Island, New York 10314, USA. darryl.hill@csi.cuny.edu
authors.forename: Darryl B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Edgardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Menvielle
authors.forename: Kristin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Sica
authors.forename: Alisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006078:Government Programs; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology