Family, education, and safety: How parents and researchers perceive the needs of trans* youth

This study explores the needs of transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) youth through the eyes of the cisgender guardians, researchers, and care providers raising and working with them. Qualitative conventional content analysis was utilized to evaluate a series of parenting and research articles in order to observe how researchers and caregivers perceive and write about the needs of TGNC youth. Through this analysis I found that cisgender researchers and guardians identify the central needs of TGNC youth to be the need for family support, connection with the LGBTQ+ community, peer support, educational resources, and protection from discrimination. While there is some overlap between the two groups' findings, the incongruencies between the two groups' perspectives demonstrates a present gap in knowledge between guardians, researchers, and care providers. From these results I argue for the integration of guardian and care provider perspectives when developing trans* resources in order to ensure that all parties have a comprehensive understanding of trans* needs and consider a variety of perspectives when caring for TGNC youth.