Trans & cis youth show equal stability in their gender identitieshttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/08/trans-cis-youth-show-equal-stability-in-their-gender-identities/Molly Sprayregen (24 Aug 2025)
A study examining the gender identities of cis and trans children over an 11-year period has found that both groups are equally consistent in how they identify.
The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) worked with over 900 youth in North America from 2013 to 2024. The subjects initially fell into three categories when recruited for the study: trans youth who socially transitioned with family support by 12 years old; cisgender youth "who were age- and gender-matched" to the trans group; and cisgender siblings of those in the trans group.
The study followed youth from an average of 8.1 years old through an average of 14.3 years old and concluded that "among early-transitioning transgender children as well as their counterparts who were cisgender in childhood, stability in gender identity was by far the modal trajectory."
"According to youth and parent-report, most youths' current identities are the same as those they held at the beginning of the study," the authors explained, adding that "to the extent that youths' identities did change, gender change was no more or less likely in any of the recruitment groups compared to the others."
"In other words, socially transitioned transgender youths were no more or less likely to show gender change throughout childhood and adolescence than youths who are cisgender in childhood."
