The first study to explore what cisgender kids think of their transgender peers

Cisgender kids who categorised their transgender peers by natal sex also showed less liking of them, mirroring similar findings with adults By Christian Jarrett With an increasing number of young children transitioning socially to the gender opposite to their birth sex, and with rates of bullying and discrimination against transgender youth known to be high, researchers say it is important that we begin to understand more about how cisgender children (those whose gender identity matches their biological sex at birth) view their transgender peers. A new paper in the Journal of Cognition and Development is the first to explore the issue. Across two studies, a team led by Selin Gülgöz at the University of Washington in Seattle, presented dozens of cisgender five to ten-year-olds with vignettes about hypothetical peers who were either cisgender or transgender. For instance, in the second study, which used more comprehensive vignettes, one description the children heard was of a baby named Jack who was born with a boy’s body, but who liked playing girl games, wearing girl clothes and who told her parents she was actually a girl and wanted to be called Annie and referred to as “she” and “her”. The participating children’s task was to rate how much they liked each child they heard about in the vignettes and to categorise them as either a boy or a girl. The children generally rated their peers positively, whether cisgender or transgender. Howeve...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Developmental Gender Source Type: blogs