Our research lab is conducting several studies about gender development in childhood. The TransYouth Project is our largest project and is the first large-scale, national, longitudinal study of socially-transitioned transgender children to date. For more about the TransYouth Project check out our Frequently Asked Questions about the TYP. We are following a cohort of about 300 children from 45 U.S. states and several Canadian provinces for 20 years.
In addition to that project we are recruiting new families for new studies on gender development both in the Seattle region and nationally. Right now we are recruiting children who are gender nonconforming, tomboys, princess boys, intersex, and gender “typical” children. If you and your family are interested in participating or have more questions feel free to complete the sign-up sheet below or email us at gendev [at] uw [dot] edu so we can tell you more about our work. For more, check out our Frequently Asked Questions page! See more
What is the TransYouth Project?
The TransYouth Project is a large-scale, national longitudinal study of more than 300 socially-transitioned transgender children that started in 2013. These children were recruited when they were 3-12 years of age and we are hoping to follow them for 20 years.
Can my family be a part of the TYP or in other research with your team?
We have completed recruitment for the initial TYP cohort, however we ARE recruiting transgender (and lots of non-transgender) children for other ongoing research. If you are interested in learning more about that work click here. In addition, we are currently recruiting children with a wide range of types of gender development. In addition to transgender children, we are recruiting intersex children, gender nonconforming children, tomboys, princess boys, pink boys, non-binary children, gender creative kids—you name it! If you have a child who is under 18 and fits in one of these (or a related) category and are interested in learning more about our work or signing up, please complete the contact form here.
Do I have to be in Seattle to participate?
We are currently recruiting children throughout the U.S. and Canada so feel free to sign up if you are interested. And honestly if you are in another country and want to sign up, go ahead and we’ll see if we can make it to you in the future.
What questions guide the TransYouth Project?
Our research primarily focuses on questions about gender development across the lifespan and about mental health and well-being of transgender children. These are the primary topics we study though we cover some other areas as well.
What kinds of data do you get and how often do you see families?
For the official TYP cohort, we aim to see families in person every 1-3 years until each child in our study is about 12 years old. Then we rely primarily on surveys. In addition we do some interviews of parents and older children by phone and collect some data online. Data and timing for our other studies vary.
What if a child is in TYP and they no longer call themselves transgender?
There are many questions surrounding how gender identity does and does not change across development in kids like those in the TYP cohort. We are looking forward to learning more about this topic by following these kids into adulthood. We are interested in following our participants no matter how they identify later in life. The many different pathways of gender development are all interesting to us!
How do I get in touch with the team about this gender work?
If you are part of the TYP cohort already, feel free to reach us at transyp [at] uw [dot] edu . If you are interested in future research or are not part of the existing TYP study, please contact us at gendev [at] uw [dot] edu.
I’m a member of the press and want to do a story on trans kids, TYP, or something related, how should I get in touch?
You can email us at transyp [at] uw [dot] edu, however please be aware that we require several days to answer so if your story is due in a few hours or even a couple of days we probably aren’t the best sources. We are often contacted by media looking to speak with transgender children and their families. Participation in our study is confidential so we cannot put you in touch with our participants. Please seek other resources to speak with families. Finally, due to considerable mis-information and mis-use of our study findings, we reserve the right to record all media conversations for our own records. We appreciate your understanding.