The Impact of Parent Support on Patient Empowerment in Trans and Gender Diverse Youth

Abstract

Parental support is known to enhance the mental health and well-being of trans and gender-diverse (TGD) youth. Little is known about the impact of parental supportiveness on patient empowerment amongst youth seeking medical gender-affirmation. We evaluated the relationship between healthcare empowerment and perceived level of parental support in a sample of 176 TGD youth, ages 14–24, who responded to a healthcare empowerment survey. We used pairwise Chi-squared tests to understand significant associations between empowerment items and a four-point measure of parent supportiveness/unsupportiveness. Youth’s sense of control over gender-affirming medical care decreased with decreasing parental support (p < 0.001). Empowerment scores related to knowledge, decision-making, and supporting peers, did not differ between youth with very unsupportive and very supportive parents (p > 0.05). Youth with somewhat unsupportive parents consistently reported the lowest empowerment. This study adds to a body of work that suggests that high parental supportiveness for TGD youth yields positive outcomes. However, additional work is needed to understand the high levels of patient empowerment observed in youth with the most unsupportive caregivers and to explore how healthcare providers/systems can better support youth with somewhat unsupportive parents, who experience the lowest empowerment. Further work with a more nuanced parental support instrument is also warranted.