A small study published in the journal Pediatrics has shown that young transgender children allowed to live openly as the gender they identify with fared as well psychologically as other kids.suggests parental support may be the key.
Rates of depression and anxiety were equal in the study, which compared 73 transgender kids aged 3 to 12 with 73 nontransgender youngsters. The trans kids also fared as well on both measures as a group of their nontransgender siblings.
Research in the USA has shown that transgender children whose parents pressure them to conform, when compared with accepting, supportive parents, have a four times higher suicide and drug abuse rate, twice the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and a five times greater chance of suffering depression.