Treatment and Support for Transgender Children

Treatment and Support for Transgender ChildrenJill SealeTransgender children and adolescents face many obstacles in todays ordination that others do not however, these obstacles be soci each(prenominal)y constructed and abide be mitigated, and in some cases withal negated, when the child or teen is afforded an affirming surround and the trance social and medical examination interventions. These factors argon crucial to the welfare of transgender children and ideally would be available to them as ahead of time in their lives as possible.Kohlbergs Theory of sex Constancy (as cited in Bernal Coolhart, 2012) states that children begin developing their gender identity in their pre discipline years. It is therefore unsurprising that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the administration that is responsible for drafting the standards of care by which all trans people are treated by medical and psychiatric professionals, has found that signs pointing to Gender Dysphoria rescue been observed in children as young as two years old (2012).Gender Dysphoria, previously cognise as Gender indistinguishability Disorder, is the state of feeling dissonance between ones gender assigned at birth and ones self-importance-perceived or experienced gender. The number of children and youth who are beingness diagnosed and treated for this condition is growing, and according to Bernal Coolhart (2012), seek and treatment protocols are masking that early intervention is effective in improving the lives of these children.In early childhood, one of the biggest decisions families will have to face is whether or not to accord their gender non-conforming child to begin socially pitch contouring into their preferred gender. In Kuvalanka, Weiner, and Mahans (2014) train, in which five mothers of transgender girls between the grows of eight and eleven years old were interviewed, it was shown that all five of the children were happier, more outgoin g, and had a more confident demeanor after(prenominal) being allowed to usher their self-perceived gender. At the point in her social transition in which she was allowed to express herself as a girl at root word but had to pretend to be a boy in public, Lilly, a nine year old at the time, was described by her instructor as being very quiet and shy (p.363). Her mother, however, reported that at home she was happy and vibrant (Kuvalanka et al., 2014). Ehrensaft (2012) explains Lillys behavior at school as being what she calls the false gender self, that is, the face a child puts on for the world either consciously or subconsciously based on the expectations of the external environment and the childs interpretations and internalizations of either appropriate or adaptive gender behaviors (p.342). When the girls in the sphere were allowed to express their true gender self, the positive effects went even raise than just changes in attitude their mothers reported that the childrens f riendships and participation in school also improve (Kuvalanka et al., 2014). With the bread and butter of their families, these girls were able to go on to run relatively normal childhoods.However, many children maintain this false gender self for years, sometimes into adulthood, with no paternal support and no outlet to express their true self. maternal(p) support has been shown to be extremely important in the fictional character of life of transgender children and teens. Simons, Schrager, Clark, Belzer, and Olsons (2013) vignette on the effects of parental support on the mental health of transgender adolescents shows that parental support correlates positively with higher(prenominal) life rejoicing, lower perceived burden of being trans, and fewer depressive symptoms. The study surveyed transgender youth between the ages of 12 and 24, excluding those who had not yet decided to survey hormone replacement therapy, on their fictional character of life and the level of pare ntal support they were receiving (Simons et al., 2013). Their quality of life was measured as their life satisfaction and their perceived burden of being trans, and their level of parental support was opinionated using the family subscale of the Multidimensional Scale of perceive Social Support (Simons et al., 2013). This includes questions such as, I get the emotional help and support I need from my parents and I can talk about my problems with my parents (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, and Farley, 1988, p. 35). It was also shown that greater depressive symptoms were associated with a greater perceived burden and that life satisfaction negatively correspond with perceived burden (Simons et al, 2013). What this study shows is that without parental support, transgender youth face a litany of hardships because of their gender identity that most children do not.Parental support is even more important when we consider the fact that many of the necessary medical and therapeutic interventions transgender children and adolescents need become much more gruelling, if not impossible, for them to strive without the resources and support of their parents. Arguably the most important of these, and undoubtedly the most difficult to obtain without parental support, is the medicine used to delay the effects of pubescence, known as pubescence blockers.According to Bernal Coolhart (2012), many transgender people describe puberty as extremely distressing, as changes in their bodies feel like betrayals to their nose out of self (p. 292). Puberty blockers allow the child to stall their natal puberty so that they can further explore their gender identity without business organization of experiencing this potentially traumatic and permanently life-altering event. Even after being allowed to socially transition, one girl in the Kuvalanka et al. (2014) study, Nicole, experienced suicidal urges and was diagnosed with bipolar infirmity when her natal puberty began however, the diag nosis was removed after she began taking puberty blockers. According to her mother, Nicole is now doing very well and her issues are only those of a normal middle school girl (Kuvalanka et al., 2014, p. 364).A study by Cohen-Kettenis, Schagen, Steensma, de Vries, and Delemarre-van de Waal (2011) that followed a transgender man from age 13 to age 35, who at the age of 13 had received puberty blockers, showed that puberty suppression can be a safe and effective treatment for transgender adolescents. They found that puberty blockers confine certain gender affirming surgeries unnecessary, because many of them involve correcting the effects of natal puberty they also made other surgeries less invasive, should the person decide they are necessary for them in the future (Cohen-Kettenis et al., 2011). According to Cohen-Kettenis et al. (2011), unfavorable post in effect(predicate) outcomes seem to be associated with a late rather than an early amaze of gender reassignment (p.844). One po ssible side effect, as noted by Bernal Coolhart (2012) is that cognitive development may be delayed as ample as puberty is being delayed, however Cohen-Kettenis et al. (2011) found that the puberty blockers can be stopped at any time and the adolescents natal puberty, including their cognitive development, will commence.The research presented shows that with family support and positive, early intervention, transgender children and adolescents lives can be improved however, there is a dearth of research on transgender people in general, and on children and adolescents in particular. That is why this paper will propose a study to be performed to learn more about this under served population.Cohen Kettenis et al. (2011) showed that puberty blockers can be an effective intervention for transgender adolescents, but because their study was longitudinal and limited to one transgender man it was unable to make conclusions that could be generalised to the larger transgender population also , it was unable to measure the effects of puberty blockers against a control group of transgender adolescents who are not receiving puberty blockers. Therefore, the question this research will be attempting to answer is this How do puberty blockers affect the quality of life of transgender adolescents? The study will measure quality of life by the subjects reported life satisfaction (to include their satisfaction with their social lives) as well as their academic and/or professional achievement. The hypothesis of this study is that taking puberty blockers will positively correlate with higher quality of life.ReferencesBernal, A. T., Coolhart, D. (2012). Treatment and Ethical Considerations with Transgender Children and Youth in Family Therapy.Journal of Family Psychotherapy,23(4), 287-303.Cohen-Kettenis, P. T., Schagen, S. E., Steensma, T. D., de Vries, A. L., Delemarre-van de Waal, H. A. (2011). Puberty Suppression in a Gender-Dysphoric Adolescent A 22-year Follow-Up.Archives of sexual behavior,40(4), 843-847.Coleman, E., Bockting, W., Botzer, M., Cohen-Kettenis, P., DeCuypere, G., Feldman, J., Zucker, K. (2012). 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