Faculty Advisor

Jennifer H. Pfeifer, Ph.D and Melvin Rouse, Jr., PhD

Area of Study

Science and Mathematics

Publication Date

Summer 2022

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the social experiences of gender-diverse (GD) youth and how they influence mental health using longitudinal data collected by the Developmental Social Neuroscience (DSN) lab at the University of Oregon. The data included survey responses from 157 cis-gender, and 17 GD adolescents (age 9-18) from four time points that were approximately 18 months apart. Coarsened Exact Matching based on demographic variables was used to create a cis-gender matched pairs sample (n = 13) for participants who had indicated a GD identity by the third time point. We found a significant decrease in perceived familial social support between wave 1 (W1) and wave 3 (W3) and waves 2 (W2) and W3 for the GD group only. Additionally, we found significant predictive relationships between depression and perceived familial social support at W3 and at the first point an individual indicated their GD identity, suggesting that the negative impacts of perceived familial social support (either after coming out or by W3) in GD adolescents contributes to depressive symptomatology.

Award

Agricolae Summer Research Grant

Publisher

University of Puget Sound

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