There has been a recent increase in the reported number of young people accessing specialist gender identity services. Transgender children and young people face a number of issues such as bullying and victimisation, academic difficulties, and mental health needs. Their parents also face issues such as feelings of fear and loss, and judgement and hostility from others. Previous research has highlighted the importance of support for transgender young people and their parents, both at school and in the community. However, there is a lack of research in the United Kingdom which examines the perspectives of transgender young people and their parents to inform the work of Educational Psychologists.
This study explored the experiences of transgender young people and their parents about home, community, and school. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four secondary school age transgender young people and five mothers, four of whom were parents of the young people interviewed. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to inform the analysis of the interview data in order to gain an in-depth understanding of how the participants made sense of their experiences and the meaningfulness of these experiences.
From the young people’s accounts, four superordinate themes were identified which related to understandings of gender, complexities of transitioning, experiences in school and support networks. Four superordinate themes were identified from the parents’ data, relating to understandings of gender, how they came to terms with their child being transgender, experiences with their child’s school and support networks. Implications for Educational Psychology policy and practice are discussed, including how Educational Psychologists might develop their work with transitioning young people and their parents.
