Parents and nonbinary teens
Today, I look at parents and nonbinary teens, but in terms of assessment. First, Matsuno, Huynh & Abreu (2024) published “Development and Validation of the Trans- and Nonbinary-Affirming Parental Practices (TAPP) Measure” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s the edited abstract:
Parental support is instrumental in protecting the mental health of trans and nonbinary youth (TNB). Yet minimal measures exist that measure parental support, and current measures typically measure parental attitudes or general perceptions of supportiveness rather than measuring specific TNB-affirming behaviors. This study aimed to fill this gap by developing and validating the Trans- and Nonbinary-Affirming Parental Practices scale. The scale items were developed based on existing psychological literature on TNB-affirming parenting behaviors as well as adapting existing measures. The sample consisted of 570 parents or caregivers of TNB youth ages 5–27 (M = 15). The vast majority of participants were White (90%) and cisgender women (92%). The sample was randomly split to conduct both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Factor analysis found good fit for a four-factor structure with 14 items. Each subscale represented a type of TNB-affirming parental behavior: communicating support, affirming language, advocating for their TNB child, and seeking affirming resources. The measure demonstrated invariance with both heterosexual participants and participants with minoritized sexual identities and demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity. The Trans- and Nonbinary-Affirming Parental Practices measure can be useful in intervention research aimed at increasing TNB-affirming behaviors among parents and caregivers of TNB youth.
Whether or not you look at the instrument, I thought you might like the subscales. The next study looks at the teens. Katz-Wise, Ranker, Korkodilos, Conti, Nelson, Xuan & Gordon (2024). Will all youth answer sexual orientation and gender-related survey questions? An analysis of missingness in a large U.S. survey of adolescents and young adults. Psychological Methods. Abstract and impact statement
Some researchers and clinicians may feel hesitant to assess sexual orientation and gender-related characteristics in youth surveys because they are unsure if youth will respond to these questions or are concerned the questions will cause discomfort or offense. This can result in missed opportunities to identify LGBTQ+ youth and address health inequities among this population. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence and sociodemographic patterns of missingness among survey questions assessing current sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE), and past change in sexual orientation (sexual fluidity) among a diverse sample of U.S. youth. Participants (N = 4,245, ages 14–25 years; 95% cisgender, 70% straight/heterosexual, 53% youth of color), recruited from an online survey panel, completed the Wave 1 survey of the longitudinal Sexual Orientation Fluidity in Youth (SO*FLY) Study in 2021. Current SOGIE, past sexual fluidity, and sociodemographic characteristics were assessed for missingness. Overall, 95.7% of participants had no missing questions, 3.8% were missing one question, and 0.5% were missing ≥ 2 questions. Past sexual fluidity and assigned sex were most commonly missing. Sociodemographic differences between participants who skipped the SOGIE questions and the rest of the sample were minimal. Missingness for the examined items was low and similar across sociodemographic characteristics, suggesting that almost all youth are willing to respond to survey questions about SOGIE. SOGIE and sexual fluidity items should be included in surveys and clinical assessments of youth to inform clinical care, policy-making, interventions, and resource development to improve the health of all youth.
Some researchers and clinicians may hesitate to assess sexual orientation and gender-related characteristics in youth surveys because they are unsure if youth will respond to these questions or are concerned the questions are too sensitive and will cause discomfort or offense. This can result in missed opportunities to identify LGBTQ+ youth and address health inequities among this population. The aim of this study was to examine how often survey questions assessing current sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and past change in sexual orientation (sexual fluidity) are skipped and whether there are certain groups that are more likely to skip these questions. A large diverse sample of U.S. youth was surveyed in 2021 as part of the Sexual Orientation Fluidity in Youth (SO*FLY) Study. Overall, 95.7% of participants did not skip any questions, 3.8% skipped one question, and 0.5% skipped two or more questions. Participants were most likely to skip survey questions assessing past sexual fluidity and assigned sex. There were few sociodemographic differences between participants who skipped these survey questions and participants who did not skip these questions. This study suggests that almost all youth are willing to respond to survey questions about sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sexual fluidity. These questions should be included in surveys and clinical assessments of youth to inform clinical care, policy-making, interventions, and resource development to improve the health of all youth.
I liked this study because it’s a large sample with clear data suggesting that most teens will answer questions about sexual orientation. While we can see the increasing numbers of nonbinary teens, we have to be prepared to respond to both parents and their teens.