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Most gender-confused kids ‘grow out of it’, according to landmark study
Two-thirds of children experiencing gender confusion in early adolescence grow out of those feelings by their mid-20s, according to a landmark, multi-decade study published in February.
Coincidentally, the finding was made by a team of researchers in the Netherlands, home of the so-called Dutch protocol, which since gave rise to the infamous treatment known as “gender-affirming care”.
“We found that gender non-contentedness is most common around the age of 11 and that the prevalence decreases with age,” the team reported.
Published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Archives of Sexual Behaviour, the study tracked 2,700 participants who were followed up every three years from age 11 to 26.
Of the 11 percent who expressed varying degrees of “gender non-contentedness” at the beginning, only 4 percent still reported these feelings by the end of the study period.
In real terms, that means 305 pre-teens began adolescence with feelings of gender confusion, and only 111 felt the same way by their mid-20s — a decrease of almost two-thirds.
“The results of the current study might help adolescents to realise that it is normal to have some doubts about one’s identity and one’s gender identity during this age period and that this is also relatively common,” the researchers concluded.
Researchers sourced their data from Tracking Adolescent’s Individual Lives Survey (TAILS), an ongoing, longitudinal, general population cohort study that began in the year 2000.
At the outset and then at three-year intervals, TAILS participants were asked to respond to the statement, “I wish to be of the opposite sex.” They could respond “Not True”, “Somewhat or Sometimes True”, or “Very True or Very Often”.
According to the Dutch research team, “Three developmental trajectories of gender non-contentedness were identified: no gender non-contentedness (78%), decreasing gender non-contentedness (19%), and increasing gender non-contentedness (2%).”
While members of the 2% cohort felt less comfortable with their gender by age 25, the entirety of the 19% cohort had desisted from feelings of gender incongruity by study’s end.
“At the sixth assessment wave (around age 25), none of these individuals reported experiencing gender non-contentedness anymore,” the team observed.
The team also found that gender non-contentedness did not take place in a vacuum.
“Individuals with an increasing gender non-contentedness more often were female and both an increasing and decreasing trajectory were associated with a lower global self-worth, more behavioural and emotional problems, and a non-heterosexual sexual orientation,” they wrote.
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The researchers acknowledged certain limitations to the study limitations, such as using participants from the general population who may not have been formally diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Despite these limitations, however, they expressed certainty about their observation that gender confusion is much more prevalent among teenagers than adults.
The finding comes in the wake of several devastating months for “gender medicine” enthusiasts.
The scientific journal Environmental Progress recently released a damning, 240-page report exposing brazen violations of medical ethics and informed consent at the World Professional Association For Transgender Health (WPATH), the supposed “leading global authority on gender medicine”.
Then in late March, NHS England made the bombshell announcement that puberty blockers will no longer be prescribed to children at gender identity clinics across the country.
So scandal-ridden is the entire gender-bending enterprise that, shortly afterwards, the prestigious Times newspaper labelled puberty blockers “Quack Medicine” and warned that its victims were “guinea pigs in unregulated mass experiments with potentially life-altering and irremediable consequences”.
The finding also comes as dozens of US states and many European countries abandon gender alchemy, putting protections in place for the young and easily-preyed-upon.
It would seem that, as with children and gender dysphoria, so with nations and “gender-affirming care” — most grow out of it eventually.
For the kids’ sake, we can only hope so.
Do you think that the controversy over trans kids is overblown? Or is it a serious threat?
Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author, and an emerging Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He has a passion for both the philosophical and the personal, drawing on his background as a graduate architect, a primary school teacher, a missionary, and a young adult pastor.
Image: Bigstock
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Juan Llor Baños commented 2024-05-03 03:37:21 +1000Very important article. Congratulations!!
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corwin king commented 2024-04-10 06:40:34 +1000If environment influences other kinds of behavior (smoking, drinking, etc.), it’s reasonable to think it can also influence gender preference. I think in children with gender questions, an environment that encourages gender conversion can lead to some children adopting a different gender. So, gender affirming care may be the CAUSE of the problem, not the solution.
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mrscracker commented 2024-04-10 00:47:16 +1000I hope this ideological delusion ends up in the same dust bin as eugenics.
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