Perceived treatment expertise, recommendations and attitudes regarding children and youth with gender incongruence (TRANS*EXPERT)

• Applicant: Dr. Angela Rölver
• Subject Area: Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine ; Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine ; Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 533337000

Children and youth with gender incongruence often perceive intense refusal of their own bodily sexual characteristics and wish to get rid of these characteristics. They want to live and express their experienced gender identity. Further, they wish to align their bodies to the experienced gender through social and medical transitions. The presence of children and youth with GI in the healthcare system is growing. So far children and youth seek help in few specialised gender clinics, mostly located at university hospitals. An expansion and a shift of health care to local counselling and treatment units for this group is very much needed Adolescents with GI report experiences of discrimination in the health care system. Many professionals in primary healthcare are insecure and unexperienced regarding children and adolescents with gender incongruence. Studies, which include the professional’s perspective are lacking. The research project wants to take the professionals perspective into account by disseminating a survey among paediatrics, children and youth psychiatrists and children and youth psychotherapists. An online survey with an integrated case vignette study will be conducted. Interesting constructs are among others perceived treatment expertise, diagnosis routine, recommendations and attitudes towards children and adolescents with gender incongruence. The research project has widespread implications for the improvement in local and primary paediatric, psychiatric and psychotherapeutic healthcare. The results of the project will serve as a base for further research regarding acceptance and implementation of the German guidelines for children and adolescents with gender Incongruence and will be published in 2023.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants