Affirming and gender-informed assessment of gender diverse and/or transgender youth across development

Abstract

Youth are presenting with gender concerns at exponentially higher rates across mental health and medical settings. Some meet criteria for gender dysphoria of childhood or adolescence/adulthood, and others may not. Recognized standards of care indicate that moving forward with medical interventions and/or for appropriately assessed adolescents is important and beneficial and that timely treatment of gender dysphoria improves outcomes. The approach to the assessment of these youth has not been formally standardized, and various multidisciplinary gender identity clinics approach the assessment in a variety of ways. This chapter serves to help child and adolescent psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to think about how to assess these youth, which is becoming increasingly more complex as youth present within a variety of biopsychosocial situations and contexts.