Perceived parental rearing style, parental divorce and transsexualism: a controlled study

The parental representations of male-to-female and female-to-male transsexuals were rated using the EMBU inventory. Scores on the measure were compared against ratings returned by controls of similar biological sex, matched on age, educational level and number of female siblings in an ANCOVA design. In line with previous findings by Parker & Barr (1982), who studied male-to-female transsexuals only, these patients were found not to differ from the male controls in their scoring of their mothers, but did score their fathers as less emotionally warm, more rejecting and more protective. Extending the findings by Parker & Barr (1982), female-to-male transsexuals rated both parents as more rejecting and less emotionally warm, but only their mothers as more protective than their female control equivalents rated theirs. Parental divorce distinguished both patient groups from controls, although further analyses revealed this not to imply more parental absence in patients than in controls. Male and female transsexuals differed from each other in some respects (e.g. lower scores on parental emotional warmth and higher scores on maternal rejection for the female patients), while being comparable in other respects (e.g. parental divorce).