Children who identify as the gender matching their sex at birth tend to gravitate toward the toys, clothing and friendships stereotypically associated with that gender.

Transgender children do the same with the gender they identify as, regardless of how long they have actually lived as a member of that gender. New findings from the largest study of socially-transitioned transgender children in the world, conducted by researchers at the 天美影视传媒, show that gender identity and gender-typed preferences manifest similarly in both cis- and transgender children, even those who recently transitioned.

The , published Nov. 18 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, followed more than 300 transgender children from across the United States, as well as nearly 200 of their cisgender siblings and about 300 unrelated cisgender children as a control group. It is the first study to report on all of the participants in the , launched in 2013 by UW professor of psychology .

The transgender children in this study, all of whom enrolled between the ages of 3 and 12, had socially 鈥� but not medically 鈥� transitioned when they participated: They had changed their pronouns and often their first names, as well as dress and play in ways associated with a gender other than their sex at birth.

For this study, researchers met individually with participants and their parents at participants鈥� homes, conferences and camps. Participants were asked about specific aspects of life that are typically connected to gender 鈥� clothing, toys and friends. The researchers also evaluated participants鈥� sense of their own gender identity. While the team observed some variability in how strong children鈥檚 preferences and identities were, the transgender children showed, on average, strong preferences and behaviors associated with their current gender, just as the cisgender children with whom they were compared.

鈥淭rans kids are showing strong identities and preferences that are different from their assigned sex,鈥� said lead author , who did the work as a postdoctoral researcher at the UW and will start a new position this winter as an assistant professor at Fordham University. 鈥淭here is almost no difference between these trans- and cisgender kids of the same gender identity 鈥� both in how, and the extent to which, they identify with their gender or express that gender.鈥�

In the study, this was evident in assessments of participants鈥� behavior. 鈥淲hile in both groups there were, for example, some tomboys, on average, most transgender girls, like their cisgender counterparts, wore stereotypically feminine clothing, chose toys such as dolls to play with, preferred playing with female playmates, and identified themselves clearly as girls, and not boys,鈥� said Olson, the study鈥檚 senior author. 鈥漈hus the transgender group looked similar to the cisgender group in both the range of responses and the most common responses.鈥�

Of the transgender and cisgender control group participants, about one-third were boys, and two-thirds were girls; the average age was 8. Among the cisgender siblings, the average age was also 8, with slightly more boys than girls.

The finding that transgender children鈥檚 gender identity was generally equivalent to that of cisgender children was based on analysis of the survey and behavioral data.

When asked to identify their gender, an equivalent percentage of cisgender and transgender children 鈥� 83% and 84%, respectively 鈥� named their current gender. (Researchers note that among the youngest participants in all groups, this question often resulted in a less definitive answer like 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know.鈥�)

The similarities among transgender and cisgender children on the various measures were somewhat surprising, researchers said, because transgender children, unlike their cisgender counterparts, were early in life treated as a gender other than the one they currently identify as.

As part of the study, researchers asked parents for photos of their child from birth through toddlerhood at typical social events such as birthdays and holidays to capture information such as what the child wore or what their room looked like. These images helped show that transgender children were initially socialized among families and friends as the gender associated with their sex at birth. However, years later there appears to be no impact of that early sex-specific socialization. These results suggest that years later, the impact of this early sex-specific socialization is not apparent on these measures of children鈥檚 gender preferences and identities.

This suggests that transgender children may be self-socializing to learn how to 鈥渂e鈥� their current gender, G眉lg枚z said.

鈥淜ids aren鈥檛 passive about their environment. Once they have a sense of their gender identity, they will look for cues from their environment, noticing what society鈥檚 expectations are, and attending to information about the gender they identify as,鈥� G眉lg枚z said.

How 鈥� and for how long 鈥� a transgender child was treated as their assigned sex does not appear to affect their current gender identity and expression, G眉lg枚z said.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not seeing any increases or decreases over time in how strongly transgender children identify with their current gender,鈥� G眉lg枚z said.

This study did not include children who use nonbinary pronouns like 鈥渢hey鈥� or who came out as transgender later in life. Further, all members of the study had at least some family support of their transgender identity. Whether the present findings would extend to these other groups of participants is currently unknown, Olson cautions.

This study adds to findings from previous UW research, which showed that transgender children鈥檚 sense of gender identity was consistent, whether tested before or after they transitioned socially.

鈥淥ur data thus far suggest that the act of transitioning probably isn鈥檛 affecting gender identity one way or the other,鈥� Olson said.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Arcus Foundation. Co-authors were Jessica Glazier, Elizabeth Enright, Daniel Alonso, Lily Durwood, Riley Lowe and Chonghui Ji of the UW Department of Psychology; Jeffrey Heer of the UW鈥檚 Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering; Anne Fast of Western Washington University; and Carol Lynn Martin of Arizona State University.

For more information, contact G眉lg枚z at sgulgoz@uw.edu.

Grant numbers: BCS-1715068, BCS-1523632, SMA-1837857, HD092347

Increasingly, children who identify as the gender other than their sex at birth . But questions remain for doctors, researchers and families: Who is transitioning now, and who is likely to later on? And does the transition itself change a child鈥檚 sense of their own gender?

A new study by a team of researchers at the 天美影视传媒 suggests that the children most apt to socially transition are those who already demonstrate the strongest 鈥渃ross-gender鈥� identities, and that the transitions don鈥檛 appear to alter a child鈥檚 gender identity or preferences.

In other words, said , a UW associate professor of psychology and the study鈥檚 senior author, 鈥渢he new findings suggest that early childhood social transitions are not occurring randomly.鈥�

For this study, accepted for publication in Psychological Science, Olson and her team pursued two primary questions: Is it possible to predict who will socially transition to another gender? And are transitions leading children to identify more strongly or behave in more gendered ways?

To answer those questions, the research team recruited three groups of children: 85 who were gender nonconforming; 84 children who had already socially transitioned; and 85 children who were gender conforming (the control group). Each child was asked about the clothes, toys and friends they preferred and answered questions about their gender identity. Researchers contacted the gender nonconforming group again, two years after completing the study, to ask if the children had socially transitioned since participating. At that point, 36 children in the gender nonconforming group had transitioned.

The data helped researchers learn two things, Olson said. First, gender nonconforming children who had shown stronger cross-gender interests in their first interview were more likely to have socially transitioned two years later. What鈥檚 more, the children who later went on to transition showed gender identification and gender preferences comparable to children who had already transitioned and and control-group children who share their gender identification.

鈥淪eeing that the two groups do not differ in their identification, we can be less concerned about the impact of social transitions on identities and preferences,鈥� Olson said. 鈥淥ne way to think about this is that before or after a transition, a transgender girl feels strongly like a girl and often prefers 鈥榞irly鈥� stuff. While the transition itself may impact that child in many ways, identity and preferences do not appear to change.鈥�

But there are limits to what can be extrapolated from this data, Olson said. Just because a child transitions socially doesn鈥檛 mean they will identify as a transgender adult 鈥� though this study will follow them over time to see if they do. Also, this study focused on families that were generally supportive of gender diversity; whether these results would generalize to parents with a broader range of views is unknown. The research also should not be used to definitively predict whether an individual child will transition. Tendencies for a group of children, Olson said, may be true of an individual child, but not always.

Olson is known for launching the at the UW to examine, over the course of 20 years, gender development and well-being among children. To date, more than 300 transgender children between the ages of 3 and 12 have enrolled from more than 40 U.S. states. (Many of their siblings have been recruited, too, as a comparison group.)

In 2018, Olson was recognized twice for her work. She received a as well as the National Science Foundation鈥檚 Alan T. Waterman Award, the U.S. government鈥檚 highest honor for one early career scientist under age 40. With the awards, Olson has said she hopes to expand her research team鈥檚 study of gender diversity and to continue to support underrepresented students who are interested in her lab鈥檚 research.

Additional authors on this study were lead author 聽a former UW doctoral student, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; and , , Madeleine DeMeules, Riley Lowe and Gabrielle Lindquist, all of the 天美影视传媒. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Arcus Foundation.

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For more information, contact the UW News office.

, 天美影视传媒 associate professor of psychology, has been named one of this year鈥檚 MacArthur Fellows.

The Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation comes with a $625,000 stipend, commonly known as the 鈥済enius grant,鈥� for recipients to use as they see fit. The Chicago-based foundation 聽25聽winners on Thursday.

Olson runs the聽聽at the UW and created the聽, which is the nation鈥檚 largest longitudinal study of transgender children. She is considered a national leader in research into how children develop gender identity.

鈥淚鈥檓 incredibly honored to have the work of my team celebrated by the MacArthur Foundation,鈥� Olson said.

The official phone call from the foundation was such a surprise, Olson added, that she asked whether they鈥檇 contacted the right person.

鈥淔or a few days after I continued to think it was an elaborate prank,鈥� she said. 鈥淣onetheless, I鈥檓 grateful and thrilled.鈥�

Olson said she hasn鈥檛 decided how, exactly, she鈥檒l use the grant. One priority is to support others in their research and training, such as through a mentorship program for underrepresented undergraduate students interested in her and related labs鈥� research at UW: LGBTQ students, students of color, first-generation college students, and those from small colleges with fewer resources for research.

The other priority, she said, is 鈥渢o take on riskier, challenging new projects that wouldn’t be supported by traditional grants.鈥�

In announcing the award, the MacArthur Foundation cited Olson’s work “advancing the scientific understanding of gender and shedding light on the social and cognitive development of transgender and gender-nonconforming youth.”

After receiving her master鈥檚 degree and doctorate in social psychology from Harvard University and a faculty appointment at Yale University, Olson was recruited to the UW in 2013. Here, she established the Social Cognitive Development Lab to explore three strands of child-focused research: the emergence of prosocial behavior, the development of bias and responses to inequality, and children鈥檚 reasoning about social categories. She launched the TransYouth Project to examine, over the course of 20 years, gender development and well-being among participants who were between the ages of 3 and 12 when they joined the study; to date, more than 300 transgender children have enrolled from 45 U.S. states. (Many of their siblings have been recruited, too, as a comparison group.)

from the TransYouth Project have shown that children who have socially transitioned to the gender they identify with firmly embrace their gender, just as children who identify as the gender they were born with. A social transition is one in which a child identifies as a gender different from the one they were born with, which may involve a new name, clothing, toys, activities and friends. And depending on where the child lives, families may be surrounded by a supportive community, or isolated and ostracized.

The research team is now recruiting children who identify as gender nonconforming 鈥� those who haven鈥檛 socially transitioned, as the current transgender participants have. Olson plans for the study to eventually include teenagers who are in the process of transitioning as well as intersex children.

Earlier this year, Olson, 37, won the National Science Foundation鈥檚 , the U.S. government鈥檚 highest honor for an early career scientist or engineer, recognizing an outstanding scientist under the age of 40 or within 10 years of receiving a Ph.D. As part of that award, Olson received a five-year, $1 million research grant. She is the first UW faculty member to receive the Waterman Award in its 43-year history.

鈥淜ristina鈥檚 work is striking both in its brilliance and its bravery,” said聽, professor and chair of the UW Department of Psychology. “She continues to explore聽important lines of research on聽inequality and prosocial behavior in children. She jumped into the TransYouth Project when she arrived at UW, and this project had so much risk but also so much reward. She鈥檚 using psychological science to explore an unknown frontier that鈥檚 of critical value to families, children and society.鈥�

In winning the MacArthur Fellowship, Olson joins who were current 天美影视传媒 faculty at the time of their awards. The most recent winner was , professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, who received his fellowship in 2011.

The Fellowship is awarded, in the words of the foundation, to 鈥渢alented individuals in a variety of fields who have shown exceptional originality in and dedication to their creative pursuits.鈥� Winners have been nominated anonymously by leaders in their fields and chosen by an anonymous selection committee.

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Olson may be reached through the UW News office.

The National Science Foundation named , 天美影视传媒 associate professor of psychology, winner of this year’s . The Waterman Award is the U.S. government鈥檚 highest honor for an early career scientist or engineer, recognizing an outstanding scientist under the age of 40 or within 10 years of receiving a Ph.D.

As part of the honor, Olson receives a five-year, $1 million research grant.

Olson, who runs the at the UW, created the , which is the nation’s largest longitudinal study of transgender children, an effort for which she is renowned.

She is the first UW faculty member to receive the Waterman Award in its 43-year history. She is also the first psychologist to receive the award and the first woman to receive it since 2004.

“Winning this award was a true shock as I was unaware I鈥檇 even been nominated. I am truly humbled and honored to have even been nominated. More than anything, this award is a reflection of the hard work, dedication and brilliance of the staff, students and collaborators with whom I work. Only through their contributions am I even in consideration for this award,” Olson said.

According to the NSF, Olson is being recognized for “innovative contributions to understanding children鈥檚 attitudes toward and identification with social groups, early prosocial behavior, the development of notions of fairness, morality and inequality, and the emergence of social biases.”

, chair of the UW Department of Psychology, said Olson’s work “breaks tremendous new ground.” Examining how children view inequality, for example, can ultimately impact how they address such issues as adults.

“Our childhood ideas about fairness can shape how we as adults understand injustice and whether we maintain or challenge inequity in society,” Kaiser said. “Kristina’s work is profound, and has implications for how children develop to become change-makers in the world.”

Olson was recruited to the UW in 2013, where she established the Social Cognitive Development Lab to explore three strands of child-focused research: the emergence of prosocial behavior, the development of bias and responses to inequality, and children鈥檚 reasoning about social categories. She launched the TransYouth Project to examine, over the course of 20 years, gender development and well-being among participants who were between the ages of 3 and 12 when they joined the study; to date, more than 300 transgender children have enrolled from 45 U.S. states. (Many of their siblings have been recruited, too, as a comparison group.)

The Waterman Award will help maintain and expand the study, Olson said. The research team is now recruiting children who identify as gender nonconforming 鈥� those who haven鈥檛 socially transitioned, as the current transgender participants have. Eventually, the study will include teenagers who are in the process of transitioning, she said, as well as intersex children.

Olson said the award also will support another of her goals: establishing a mentorship program aimed to include underrepresented undergraduate students interested in her and related labs鈥� research at UW: LGBTQ students, students of color, first-generation college students, and those from small colleges with fewer resources for research.

Olson grew up in a diverse college town 鈥� something she said made her keenly aware of differences in experience even as a child. She noticed who was treated differently, the groups that formed and the prejudices, and understandings, that revealed themselves over time. She remembers more than one gay classmate who fled an unwelcoming home, friends鈥� parents who expressed overt racial discrimination and the accepting teachers who provided support and celebrated student鈥檚 unique backgrounds.

Questions about how people relate to each other, and how their ideas and issues manifest in society, drove Olson’s initial career choice as a clinical psychologist. She didn’t think of research itself as a professional path; her only image of academic research was being alone in a lab hunched over chemicals, plants or soil.

“I was 100 percent certain I was not going to be an academic. To me, that was being alone in a lab! I wanted to work on teams and understand the struggles people had in the world.” Olson laughs.

But as she pursued her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, she realized that she could devote herself to studying what she was passionate about 鈥� the sources of conflict, how people see one another and how those ideas form early in life. She went on to earn her master’s degree and her doctorate in social psychology from Harvard University and her first faculty appointment at Yale University.

Olson has written about the encounter that led her to start the TransYouth Project: an invitation 10 years ago to a friend’s house for dinner, where she met her friend’s young son before this child transitioned to live as a girl. As she later delved into issues of gender identity, she found a “gaping hole” in research about such children.

“The questions I’m interested in have to do with the categories kids see themselves in, how children see themselves and the world. 鈥淭ransgender children鈥� is a category we have so little scientific knowledge about,” Olson said. “I’m interested in their experience of feeling you are in a social category that other people don’t think you’re a part of.”

What she’s found, so far, is that children in her study 鈥� children who have socially transitioned to the gender they identify with 鈥� firmly embrace their gender, just as children who identify as the gender they were born with. In addition, the first from the TransYouth Project showed in 2016 that transgender participants had normal rates of depressive symptoms, and only slightly higher rates of anxiety, than members of the control group.

People sometimes misunderstand the project, Olson said: No one is performing surgery on these young prepubescent children, for example. Also, she鈥檚 not the one instructing parents whether to support their children through a social transition. These children transitioned socially well before she met them, meaning they identify as a gender different from the one they were born with, perhaps with a new name, clothing, toys, activities and friends.

The study started small, but over time, as Olson traveled to interview families and word spread, interest grew. Participants come from cities like Seattle, where gender identity is a relatively familiar topic, to rural communities where transgender children are sometimes isolated or ostracized. The UW, the College of Arts & Sciences and the Department of Psychology helped fund Olson’s initial work, Kaiser said, recognizing the value in supporting early career faculty. Olson鈥檚 scholarship exemplifies Psychology鈥檚 vision of promoting healthy minds and society through psychological science, she said.

Olson’s research, in those early years, was a “striking act of bravery,” Kaiser added.

“It was unusual; it was different. She could have focused exclusively on her research on fairness and prosocial behavior and would have been incredibly productive and continued to be amazing,” she said. “But this was a project Kristina felt was critical for society to understand. This risk paid off as her trailblazing scholarship now has breadth and impact that is remarkable for a scholar at her career stage. She represents the very best of psychological science.”

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Olson may be reached through the UW News office.

Most conscientious adults tend to avoid making biased or discriminatory comments in the presence of children.

But new from the 天美影视传媒 suggests that preschool-aged children can learn bias even through nonverbal signals displayed by adults, such as a condescending tone of voice or a disapproving look. Published Dec. 21 in the journal Psychological Science, the research found that children can “catch” social bias by seeing negative signals expressed by adults and are likely to generalize that learned bias to others.

“This research shows that kids are learning bias from the non-verbal signals that they鈥檙e exposed to, and that this could be a mechanism for the creation of racial bias and other biases that we have in our society,” said lead author , a postdoctoral researcher in the UW鈥檚 Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences.

“Kids are picking up on more than we think they are, and you don鈥檛 have to tell them that one group is better than another group for them to be getting that message from how we act.”

The research involved an initial group of 67 children ages 4 and 5, an equal mix of boys and girls. The children were shown a video in which two different female actors displayed positive signals to one woman and negative signals to another woman. All people in the video were the same race, to avoid the possibility of racial bias factoring into the results.

The actors greeted both women the same way and did the same activities with both (for example, giving each a toy) but the actors鈥� nonverbal signals differed when interacting with one woman聽versus the other. The actor spoke to one woman聽in a positive way 鈥� smiling, leaning toward her, using a warm tone of voice 鈥� and the other negatively, by scowling, leaning away and speaking in a cold tone. The children were then asked a series of questions 鈥� such as who they liked the best and who they wanted to share a toy with 鈥� intended to gauge whether they favored the recipient of positive nonverbal signals over the recipient of negative nonverbal signals.

The results showed a consistent pattern of children favoring the recipient of positive nonverbal signals. Overall, 67 percent of children favored the recipient of positive nonverbal signals over the other woman 鈥� suggesting they were influenced by the bias shown by the actor.

The researchers also wondered if nonverbal signals could lead to group bias or prejudice. To get at that question, they recruited an additional 81 children ages 4 and 5. The children were shown the same videos from the previous study, then a researcher introduced them to the “best friends” of the people in the video. The “friends” were described as members of the same group, with each wearing the same color shirt as their friend. The children were then asked questions to assess whether they favored one friend over the other.

Strikingly, the results showed that children favored the friend of the recipient of positive nonverbal signals over the friend of the other woman. Taken together, the researchers say, the results suggest that biases extend beyond individuals to members of groups they are associated with.

Skinner pointed out that many American preschoolers live in fairly homogenous environments, with limited ability to witness positive interactions with people from diverse populations. So even brief exposure to biased nonverbal signals, she said, could result in them developing generalized biases. The simulations created for the study represent just a small sample of what children likely witness in real life, Skinner said.

“Children are likely exposed to nonverbal biases demonstrated by multiple people toward many different members of a target group,” she said. “It is quite telling that brief exposure to biased nonverbal signals was able to create a bias among children in the lab.”

The study鈥檚 findings, she said, underscore the need for parents and other adults to be aware of the messages 鈥� verbal or otherwise 鈥� that they convey to children about how they feel about other people.

Co-authors are , co-director of the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, and , a UW assistant professor of psychology. Funding for the research was provided by the聽天美影视传媒 Ready Mind Project聽Innovative Research Fund.

For more information, contact Skinner at 206-685-1310 or skinna2@uw.edu.

But almost nothing is known about the mental health of a new and growing generation of transgender Americans 鈥� prepubescent children who are living openly as transgender with the support of their families. How do those children fare in an environment of openness and family support? When their gender identity is affirmed, are they happy?

New 天美影视传媒 research suggests the answer is yes. Published Feb. 26 in Pediatrics, the is believed to be the first to look at the mental health of transgender children who have 鈥渟ocially transitioned,鈥� changing their preferred pronouns and typically, their names, clothing and hairstyles.

The research found that the 73 children, age 3 to 12, had rates of depression and anxiety no higher than two control groups 鈥� their own siblings and a group of age- and gender-matched children. And their rates of depression and anxiety were significantly lower than those of gender-nonconforming children in previous .

The findings, said lead author , challenge long-held assumptions that mental health problems in transgender children are inevitable, or even that being transgender is itself a type of mental disorder.

鈥淭he thinking has always been that kids who are not acting gender-stereotypically are basically destined to have mental health problems,鈥� said Olson, a UW assistant professor of psychology. 鈥淚n our study, that鈥檚 not the case.鈥�

Co-author , a UW assistant professor of psychology, called the findings 鈥渋ncredibly promising.鈥�

鈥淭hey suggest that mental health problems are not inevitable in this group, and that family support might buffer these children from the onset of mental health problems so commonly observed in transgender people,鈥� she said.

The study involved having parents complete two short surveys under the National Institutes of Health鈥檚 . The surveys asked parents whether their children had experienced symptoms of depression or anxiety during the past week 鈥� for example, feeling sad or being worried when going to bed.

The research found that the transgender children鈥檚 levels of depression averaged a score of 50.1, almost the same as the national norm of 50. Their anxiety rates were 54.2, only slightly higher than the national norm.

The higher anxiety rates aren鈥檛 exactly surprising, Olson said. Though transgender children are becoming increasingly visible in the mainstream media 鈥� the most well-known, 15-year-old , is the subject of a new documentary series 鈥� their reality remains little understood even within the medical community.

Transgender people were long classified under the umbrella of 鈥済ender identity disorder鈥� by the widely used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (). The term was with 鈥済ender dysphoria鈥� in 2013, after considerable debate and lobbying from advocates to remove the word 鈥渄isorder鈥� from its name.

鈥淚t is hard to be transgender in 2016 in the United States,鈥� Olson said. 鈥淚f peers know that a child is transgender, they often tease that child. If peers do not know, the transgender child has to worry about being found out. It鈥檚 not surprising that transgender children would have some more anxiety, given the state of the world for transgender children right now.鈥�

The researchers acknowledge that the positive mental health among study participants might be explained by factors other than just parental support. Parents could be biased in their reporting, for example, wanting their kids to appear healthier than they are. Or the children themselves might have personality traits, such as confidence, that correlate to a healthy emotional state. Future studies will investigate these possibilities.

The study is part of the t that Olson leads. The initiative is the first large-scale, longitudinal study of transgender children in the U.S. It currently involves more than 150 transgender children and families from about 25 states, and Olson is recruiting additional participants. The project鈥檚 initial , published in 2015, found that transgender children鈥檚 gender identities were as deeply rooted as those of their non-trans peers.

The researchers next plan to look at how factors outside of the family, such as treatment by peers, might predict mental health in transgender children, and whether the age of transition makes a difference.

鈥淚t will be important to follow these children over time, particularly during the transition to adolescence, to understand patterns of mental health and positive adjustment across development for transgender youth who are supported by their families,鈥� McLaughlin said.

Olson said while there is still a tremendous amount to be learned about transgender children, the study鈥檚 findings suggest it鈥檚 possible for them to live happier lives than previous generations of transgender people.

鈥淚 think they鈥檙e proof that you can be a young transgender kid today and be happy and healthy and doing just as well as any other kid,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 some good news, finally, which I don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 much of in what we hear about transgender kids.鈥�

Other co-authors are and , the project coordinators of the TransYouth Project.

Unsure what to do, Mack went in search of answers. She found little information online, her pediatrician knew nothing about transgender children, and even a psychologist who specialized in child identity issues couldn鈥檛 answer her questions. Mack quickly learned there was almost no research that could help her determine whether to allow her son to live as a girl, or tell her what might happen if she did.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like stepping into the abyss,鈥� said Mack, who uses a pseudonym to protect her child鈥檚 identity. 鈥淭here are almost no resources out there.鈥�

A new study by , a 天美影视传媒 assistant professor of psychology, aims to provide insight that could help parents like Mack. The study’s initial results, which are being published soon in , involved 32 transgender children ages 5 to 12 from around the U.S. who are living as their identified gender in all aspects of their lives and in supportive environments.

The paper, believed to be the first ever to focus on this group of children, is intended to launch the first large-scale, nationwide, longitudinal study of transgender children in the United States. Its co-authors are Nicholas Eaton at Stony Brook University and Aidan Key of , a Seattle organization that provides training and runs support groups for families of gender-nonconforming children.

The research is part of the broader , an initiative based out of the UW鈥檚 Social Cognitive Development Lab that seeks to engage collaborators nationwide to better understand gender development in gender-nonconforming youth. Mack’s child is participating in the research, and Olson ultimately hopes to recruit more than 100 children; families can sign up through the project鈥檚 .

Olson embarked on the project a year ago, partly out of her interest in how children think about social groups, but also because she鈥檇 witnessed the challenges of a close friend with a transgender child.

鈥淪eeing how little scientific information there was, basically nothing for parents, was hard to watch,鈥� Olson said. 鈥淒octors were saying, 鈥榃e just don鈥檛 know,鈥� so the parents have to make these really big decisions: Should I let my kid go to school as a girl, or should I make my kid go to school as a boy? Should he be in therapy to try to change what he says he is, or should he be supported?鈥�

Olson鈥檚 study sought to determine how deeply held a participant’s gender identity was, or whether transgender children were, as others have suggested, confused or simply pretending to be the opposite gender. The research combined the children鈥檚 own self-reporting about gender with tests that assessed the speed at which they associated with various concepts of male and female.

The study found that participants鈥� responses were indistinguishable from those of two control groups, suggesting that 鈥渢his identity is a deeply held one.鈥�

The findings are likely to be controversial. The notion that prepubescent children can be legitimately transgender has been met with skepticism in the public realm. And some experts believe the best approach for gender-variant children is not to allow them to live as the 鈥渙pposite鈥� gender, but to instead try to help them be comfortable with their biological gender.

But growing numbers of doctors, parents and mental health professionals are advocating that children be permitted to live as their identified gender. The attitude shift is motivated at least in part by the often tragic outcomes for transgender people. Forty-one percent of transgender people attempt , compared with 1.6 percent among the general population, and transgender adults face staggeringly of unemployment, poverty, discrimination and homelessness.

The risks to transgender children were driven starkly home by the Dec. 28 of Ohio transgender teen Leelah Alcorn. The 17-year-old committed suicide after posting an online letter saying her conservative Christian parents isolated her and refused to allow her to transition from male to female.

Key, who helped to develop questions and assisted with recruitment for Olson鈥檚 study, said he鈥檚 met parents of transgender children as young as 5 years old who have significant anxiety and depression, even suicidal impulses.

鈥淔amilies are searching for information,鈥� he said. 鈥淣obody wants a child to say, 鈥業 wish I were dead鈥� when they鈥檙e 6 years old.鈥�

Key said previous research and treatment have been hampered by a fear that allowing children to transition to their expressed gender will track them into becoming transgender adults. Rather than forcing children to live as their assigned gender, Key said, allowing simple measures such as using a different name or altering their hair makes them feel validated and supported.

鈥淭hen if that child were to change their mind, they would just change back,鈥� he said.

Key expects Olson鈥檚 research will affirm what parents he works with have discovered 鈥� that embracing their children鈥檚 identities leads to happier, healthier young adults.

鈥淭he evidence is there in the lives of their children,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he research is struggling to catch up. That鈥檚 why Kristina鈥檚 work is so powerful.鈥�

Olson hopes to follow the children in her initial study into adulthood to observe how the support they have received influences their development and whether it translates into more positive outcomes than in today鈥檚 transgender adults.

鈥淲e have absolutely no idea what their lives will look like, because there are very few transgender adults today who lived as young kids expressing their gender identity,鈥� Olson said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 all the more reason why this particular generation is important to study. They鈥檙e the pioneers.鈥�

Mack started a podcast, , and a to chronicle her experiences with her daughter and share information with other parents. She hopes Olson鈥檚 work will ultimately help parents like her determine how likely their children are to remain fixed in their gender identities.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the 64-million-dollar question,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what everybody wants to know.鈥�

天美影视传媒 psychologist and colleagues from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania discovered that preschoolers often don’t view a copycat negatively, but they do by the age of 5 or 6. And that holds true even across cultures that typically view intellectual property rights in different ways.

“Physical property is something that can be seen, but intellectual property is something that can’t be seen, and it’s hard to understand, let alone place a value on that,” Olson said. “So it’s not surprising that it’s so hard for younger kids to understand intellectual property rights.”

The results are published in the .

The researchers wanted to know whether young children in different cultures placed more value on unique artwork or copies of someone else’s work. They evaluated 3- to 6-year-old children in the United States, Mexico and China 鈥� chosen by the researchers based on the different emphasis each country places on the protection of intellectual property and ideas.

Researchers had children watch videos of puppets producing a unique drawing or plagiarizing another character’s drawing. The videos were in the children’s native language (English, Mandarin or Spanish).

Each child watched three 30-second videos. At the beginning of each video, one puppet looked at what the other puppet was drawing. In one video, the puppet that peeked then created an identical drawing. In the second video, he created a similar drawing with the same theme but different colors and shape elements. In the third, the puppet that looked at the other’s drawing drew a completely different picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEbUCmSM5BE

After watching each video, the children rated how good or bad the puppets were.

Five- and 6-year-olds from all three cultures rated the puppet who copied the others’ work negatively. However, 3- and 4-year-olds evaluated plagiarism much differently than the older children, as well as differently across cultures. Mexican preschoolers rated unique drawers more positively than the plagiarizers, but, American and Chinese 3- and 4-year-olds didn’t distinguish much between characters who created original drawings and plagiarized ones. And Chinese preschoolers rated copycats more positively than those who drew something similar.

“Sometimes copying is good; for example, when we learn to write, we all learn this is how you make an A, so that’s not considered plagiarism,” Olson said. “That may be confusing to children, because sometimes we tell them to come up with novel ideas but other times they’re supposed to copy. It’s interesting to think about how kids are sorting that out.”

The researchers chose to study children in the U.S., which has strong protections in place for intellectual property, and China, which did not until very recently (establishing its first patent law in 1984, more than 150 years after the U.S. and most of Europe). They also chose Mexico because it is in the middle of the spectrum in protecting intellectual property.

“This is a nice example of how we often think there are huge differences across cultures and that a lot of everyday judgments are colored by our culture. But, this study shows that even in very different cultures, the underlying psychology is sometimes quite similar,” Olson said. “By age 5 or 6 across all of these cultures you find that kids think being a copycat is bad.”

Co-authors of the study are , a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, and and Eric Garduno, formerly students at Yale. Olson conducted the research while at Yale University; she joined the 天美影视传媒 in summer 2013.

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Olson can be reached at krolson@uw.edu or 206-616-1371.