JPBS

Background: Despite the growing focus on transgender individuals, there is still a paucity of coherent research on the association between self-reported gender identity and the diagnosis of gender dysphoria (GD). This study explores the gap between the self-reported gender identity and the diagnosed condition. Methods: Data from high school and college in Hunan, China, were collected from September 2019 to December 2019. Students who self-reported as gender minority (including transgender and other gender minorities) were interviewed by psychiatrists to confirm their GD diagnosis. Rates of the self-identified gender minority and GD clinical diagnosis were the present study’s primary outcomes. Depression, social avoidance and distress, social support, and suicidal ideation were measured with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SAD), Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), and Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSI), respectively. Results: Despite the relatively high rate of self-reported gender minorities in the sample (6.5%), none of them matched the clinical diagnosis of GD, as confirmed by psychiatrists. Nevertheless, even with the absence of GD diagnosis, self-reported gender minority students were shown to have more severe depressive symptoms, social avoidance, social distress, and suicidal ideation compared to their cisgender peers. Conclusions: Youth with clinically diagnosed GD are still uncommon in China. Nevertheless, the mental health challenges that the self-identified gender minority youth has experienced require more public awareness.

transgender; gender Dysphoria; DSM-5