Gender dysphoria in adolescence: parental representations

Gender dysphoria (APA, 2013) is defined as an incongruence between the gender an individual identifies with and the gender assigned at birth; it is associated to distress and impairment in social functioning. The onset can be in childhood and adolescence, sometimes as early as 3-4 years of age. Therapeutic approaches are generally focused on the child/teenager, the family and the social environment. This study aims to explore the experiences, representations, and feelings connected to gender dysphoria in a sample of parents of transgender adolescents, consecutively admitted in a specialized center in the largest public hospital in Milan (Ambulatorio per la Disforia di Genere, Ospedale Niguarda Ca’ Granda). Methods include the use of a semi-structered interview. The interview in useful in offering the possibility to explore in depth the topic under investigation; it is a tecnique that easily allows access to the point of view of an individual. Interviews focused on the parents’ experience of their son/daughter’s gender dysphoria, the impact of gender dysphoria on family environment, causal explanations by the parents, expectations about the future, relationships with in the family and with school and health care services. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcripted and analized though qualitative methods including discourse analysis (Parker, 2005; Potter, 2003). Preliminary results and clinical implications will be discussed