New Delhi: The political climate following Donald Trump’s 2025 presidential inauguration negatively affected the mental health of parents of transgender children in the United States, a new study published in Psychological Science has found.
“Our findings identify an immediate potential cost of the current political environment for supportive parents of transgender youth,” the study’s authors wrote.
Parents of transgender children report increased distress
The researchers surveyed data collected from 73 transgender and 87 cisgender children, as well as their parents, from 2022 to 2024. This was followed by weekly surveys administered over the seven weeks after Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.
The surveys assessed participants’ demographics, gender identity, and mental health, including depression, anxiety, and positive affect.
The analysis found a marked increase in depression and a decline in positive affect among parents of transgender children after the inauguration.
Before the 2024 election, their mental health levels were comparable to those of parents of cisgender children. The researchers also recorded an increase in anxiety among the parents of transgender children.
Parents cited attacks on transgender rights and support as a major source of distress.
“This past week has been one of the worst weeks I can recall,” one parent wrote in a survey after the inauguration, according to Newswise. Another described being overwhelmed by “denial and grief”.
By contrast, the mental health of parents of cisgender children remained stable, even among those who shared similar political views and outlooks on the new administration.
Transgender children show fewer immediate changes
Transgender children showed relatively little overall change in their mental health during the study period. The authors attributed it to the parents being more sensitive to threats against their children.
“Parents more often anticipate the longer-term threats,” the authors wrote.
Transgender children experienced reduced positive emotions and higher anxiety than cisgender peers after the inauguration.
The researchers cautioned that the limited changes among transgender children might reflect the timing of the study, as many of the administration’s policy measures had not yet been fully implemented.
“Transgender youths’ responses may reflect the reality that, in the time of our study, effects of executive orders had largely not been implemented,” they wrote.
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Trump administration’s policies on transgender rights
Since taking office in January 2025, the Trump administration has issued a series of executive orders restricting federal recognition and support for transgender people.
These measures have included efforts to restrict gender-affirming medical care for minors, direct federal agencies to withhold funding from schools that support transgender students, and prohibit transgender girls and women from competing in female sports categories.
Other directives have sought to limit recognition of gender identity in federal records and restrict transgender people’s service in the military. The administration has also characterised some gender-affirming care and accommodations as experimental or harmful.
Researchers call for further study
The authors said further research is needed to assess the longer-term effects of the changing political climate. They also called for studies examining families with different political ideologies and backgrounds.
“As backlash toward transgender people (and youth in particular) intensifies, identifying and understanding these costs, and whom they affect, is of critical importance,” the authors wrote.
(Edited by Maryam Hassan)