Best Practices for Supporting Transgender Youth in Schools
Best Practices for Supporting Transgender Youth in Schools
- Patrick Mulkern, Patrick MulkernPatrick J. Mulkern is a doctoral student at the Boston College School of Social Work and Project Coordinator of the Improving Methods of Providing Affirming Care to Transgender Students (IMPACTS) study in the Affirm Lab (www.affirmlab.org). Their research is informed by the tension of schools as sites of both oppression and liberation.
- August WeiAugust WeiAugust X. Wei is a research assistant at the Boston College School of Social Work in the Affirm Lab (www.affirmlab.org). His research interests include community-partnered interventions, suicide prevention, and minority stress among LGBTQ youth, with a particular focus on transgender youth.
- , and Maggi PriceMaggi PriceDr. Maggi A. Price is an assistant professor and an applied health disparities researcher at the Boston College School of Social Work, where she directs the Affirm Lab (www.affirmlab.org). She is also a licensed psychologist and a psychology associate in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Dr. Price’s research focuses on understanding and reducing multilevel stigma to promote youth mental health equity. Dr. Price’s grant-funded intervention studies currently focus on reducing stigma and improving systems (e.g., mental health care, schools) for transgender youth.
Summary
Transgender youth are those whose genders do not align with their sex assigned at birth. Transgender youth are increasingly visible and frequently encounter discrimination and a lack of understanding from others, especially at school. As a result, they experience profound mental health challenges, with one in five transgender youth attempting suicide. However, such youth who are adequately supported do not experience serious mental health difficulties. Accordingly, promoting school support for transgender youth is critical. While school staff know how to help youth generally, many want more guidance on how to help transgender youth. However, few resources provide clear and actionable best practices for school staff to help transgender youth.
Best practices for supporting transgender youth in schools include verbal, behavioral, and visual skills that all school staff can use. Research shows that when these practices are used, transgender youth experience fewer mental health challenges, feel more connected to their school community, and do better academically.
There are at least 20 best practices for supporting transgender youth in schools supported by empirical and practice-based literature; they span four categories: (a) language to use and avoid, (b) coming out at school, (c) creating a supportive school environment, and (d) preventing and intervening in bullying. Examples include sharing pronouns, advocating for, and sharing the location of gender-inclusive facilities, and intervening in gender-based bullying. School staff—including school social workers—can and should use this set of easy-to-implement, research-informed best practices to improve transgender youths’ mental health.
Subjects
- Children and Adolescents
- Gender and Sexuality
- Mental and Behavioral Health
