A Longitudinal Investigation of Trans and Nonbinary Youth Identity: Individual Processes and Family Agreement in the...

Few studies have focused on transgender and nonbinary youths' (TNBY) gender development and even less well understood is how family members understand TNBY identity. The current study investigated: a) how TNBY describe their gender identity over time, and b) how family members understand TNBY gender identity over time. The baseline sample included 96 members of 33 families (33 TNBY, 48 cisgender caregivers, 15 siblings) from the United States; 30 families continued after Wave 1. Results indicated that 23 (77.7%) youth's gender identity labels remained the same throughout all five waves, with seven (23.3%) youth shifting their description more than once-all youth continuing after Wave 1 who reported shifts, shifted from one TNB identity to another TNB identity. Family agreement varied across waves amongst family members regarding gender identity, gender expression, and pronoun use. Agreement and partial agreement were primarily in the High and Moderate categories across domains, with the pronouns domain demonstrating the highest level of agreement across pairings. Disagreement amongst pairings was usually not present or coded as Low, indicating greater shared understanding for families across waves and domains. Results suggest a nuanced developmental process for TNBY and their families regarding understanding of gender identity, gender expression, and pronoun use.