Commentary: Gender diversity and adolescent mental health – a reflection on Potter et al. (2020)

• Published in: Journal of child psychology and psychiatry Vol. 62; no. 2; pp. 180 - 183
• Main Author: Burke, Sarah M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2021
• Subjects: Adolescents; Child & adolescent mental health; Child & adolescent psychiatry; Child psychology; Childhood; Gender differences; Gender identity; Health problems; Identity formation; Individual differences; Mental disorders; Mental health; Psychiatry; Teenagers; Transgender persons
• ISSN: 0021-9630; 1469-7610
• DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.13309

Using a multidimensional measure of gender identity for youths, Potter and colleagues elegantly investigated the prevalence of gender diversity and associated mental health problems in a large sample of young adolescents. The authors address an important need of studies within the behavioral and medical sciences to consider more carefully variations in a person’s subjective experience of gender. Their study shows that individual differences in gender identity significantly relate to adolescent mental health problems. Moreover, findings of the current study, and future follow‐up assessments of the ABCD cohort, will, hopefully, add important quantitative, empirical data to the controversial discussions on gender identity development and gender diversity in childhood and adolescence (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 59, 2018, 1244; Pediatric gender identity, 2020, Cham, Switzerland: Springer International; International Journal of Transgenderism, 19, 2018, 225).