Freedman, Abigail;
(2019)
The experiences of transgender young people and their parents: Informing the work of Educational Psychologists.
Doctoral thesis (D.Ed.Psy), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
There has been a recent increase in the reported number of young people accessing specialist gender identity services. Transgender children and young people face a number of issues such as bullying and victimisation, academic difficulties and mental health needs. Their parents also face issues such as feelings of fear and loss, and judgement and hostility from others. Previous research has highlighted the importance of support for transgender young people and their parents, both at school and in the community. However, there is a lack of research in the United Kingdom which examines the perspectives of transgender young people and their parents to inform the work of Educational Psychologists. This study explored the experiences of transgender young people and their parents with regard to home, community and school. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four secondary school age transgender young people and five mothers, four of whom were parents of the young people interviewed. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to inform the analysis of the interview data in order to gain an in-depth understanding of how the participants made sense of their experiences and the meaningfulness of these experiences. From the young people’s accounts, four superordinate themes were identified which related to understandings of gender, complexities of transitioning, experiences in school and support networks. Four superordinate themes were identified from the parents’ data, relating to understandings of gender, how they came to terms with their child being transgender, experiences with their child’s school and support networks. Implications for Educational Psychology policy and practice are discussed, including how Educational Psychologists might develop their work with transitioning young people and their parents.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | D.Ed.Psy |
| Title: | The experiences of transgender young people and their parents: Informing the work of Educational Psychologists |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2019. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10080774 |
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