Children of transgender and nonbinary parents demonstrate typical behavioral and emotional development, while their parents use effective parenting techniques comparable to those of cisgender parents, according to a new study led by a researcher in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State.
The study, published in the journal Infant and Child Development, confirms that parenting quality - not parent gender identity - predicts child outcomes and aligns with previous research showing that parenting techniques and processes, rather than family structure, are the strongest influences on child wellbeing.
"Children of transgender and nonbinary parents show typical, sub-clinical levels of internalizing behaviors like anxiety and depression, as well as externalizing behaviors like aggression," said Samantha Tornello, Karl R. Fink and Diane Wendle Fink Early Career Professor, associate professor of human development and family studies at Penn State, and lead author of the study. "Their development is indistinguishable from children in the general population."
The study, the largest to date of gender identity and children's development, included trans women, trans men and nonbinary participants. All 138 parents were over the age of 18 and had at least one child between the ages of one and 12.
