Tl;Dr : Brown University has removed from it’s PLOS journal a peer reviewed scientific study which shows that rapid onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults is likely a peer pressure/social problem. Scientific enquiry is being silenced by hurt feelings.
Due to public pressure, Brown University has removed a scientific article from news publication. The article in question is:
Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults: A study of parental reports
Brown University made a statement to the effect of :
As you may be aware, Brown late last week posted a news announcement regarding research on gender dysphoria published by a faculty member in the School of Public Health. In light of questions raised about research design and data collection related to the study on “rapid onset gender dysphoria,” the University determined that removing the article from news distribution is the most responsible course of action.
their reasons for the removal of the article being :
The research had been published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, which stated in a comment posted on the study August 27 that the journal “will seek further expert assessment on the study’s methodology and analyses.” Independent of the University’s removal of the article because of concerns about research methodology, the School of Public Health has heard from Brown community members expressing concerns that the conclusions of the study could be used to discredit efforts to support transgender youth and invalidate the perspectives of members of the transgender community.
The method of the study was :
A 90-question survey instrument with multiple choice, Likert-type, and open-ended questions was created by the researcher. The survey was designed for parents (respondents) to complete about their adolescent and young adult children. The survey was uploaded onto Survey Monkey (SurveyMonkey, Palo Alto, CA, USA) via an account that was HIPPA-enabled. IRB approval for the study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, NY was received.
participant numbers :
There were 256 parent-completed surveys that met study criteria.
The article discussed findings such as :
Almost a third of respondents (32.4%) noted that their child did not seem gender dysphoric when they made their announcement and 26.0% said the length of time from not seeming gender dysphoric to announcing a transgender identity was between less than a week to three months.
The most striking examples of “not seeming at all gender dysphoric” prior to making the announcement included a daughter who loved summers and seemed to love how she looked in a bikini, another daughter who happily wore bikinis and makeup, and another daughter who previously said, “I love my body!”
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The majority of respondents (69.2%) believed that their child was using language that they found online when they “came out.”
Parents identified the sources they thought were most influential for their child becoming gender dysphoric. The most frequently answered influences were: YouTube transition videos (63.6%); Tumblr (61.7%); a group of friends they know in person (44.5%); a community/group of people that they met online (42.9%); a person they know in-person (not online) 41.7%.
the Adolescents and Young Adults (AYAs) belonged to a friend group where one or multiple friends became gender dysphoric and came out as transgender during a similar time as they did (21.5%), exhibited an increase in their social media/internet use (19.9%), both (45.3%), neither (5.1%), and don’t know (8.2%). For comparisons, the first three categories will be combined and called “social influence” (86.7%) and the last two combined as “no social influence” (13.3%).
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The majority (76.5%) of the surveyed parents felt that their child was incorrect in their belief of being transgender.
More than a third (33.7%) of the AYAs asked for medical and/or surgical transition at the same time that they announced they were transgender-identified.
Almost a third (31.2%) of AYAs brought up the issue of suicides in transgender teens as a reason that their parent should agree to treatment.
More than half of the AYAs (55.9%) had very high expectations that transitioning would solve their problems in social, academic, occupational or mental health areas.
60.7% of the AYAs experienced an increased popularity within their friend group when they announced a transgender-identification and 60.0% of the friend groups were known to mock people who were not transgender or LGBTIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or asexual).
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AYAs had received online advice including how to tell if they were transgender (54.2%)
the reasons that they should transition right away (34.7%)
that if their parents did not agree for them to take hormones that the parents were “abusive” and “transphobic” (34.3%)
that if they waited to transition they would regret it (29.1%)
what to say and what not to say to a doctor or therapist in order to convince them to provide hormones (22.3%)
that if their parents were reluctant to take them for hormones that they should use the “suicide narrative” (telling the parents that there is a high rate of suicide in transgender teens) to convince them (20.7%)
and that it is acceptable to lie or withhold information about one’s medical or psychological history from a doctor or therapist in order to get hormones/get hormones faster (17.5%).
Basically, the study has found what other studies have found, rapid onset gender dysphoria is a social problem, not a medical one, namely Peer Contagion, as the article also explains :
Peer contagion, in particular, is the process where an individual and peer mutually influence each other in a way that promotes emotions and behaviours that can potentially undermine their own development or harm others. Peer contagion has been associated with depressive symptoms, disordered eating, aggression, bullying, and drug use [21, 22]. Internalizing symptoms such as depression can be spread via the mechanisms of co-rumination, which entails the repetitive discussion of problems, excessive reassurance seeking (ERS), and negative feedback.
Peer contagion has been shown to be a factor in several aspects of eating disorders. There are examples in the eating disorder and anorexia nervosa literature of how both internalizing symptoms and behaviours have been shared and spread via peer influences which may have relevance to considerations of rapid-onset gender dysphoria.
It also states :
This research does not imply that no AYAs who become transgender-identified during their adolescent or young adult years had earlier symptoms nor does it imply that no AYAs would ultimately benefit from transition. Rather, it suggests that not all AYAs presenting at these vulnerable ages are correct in their self-assessment of the cause of their symptoms; some may be employing a drive to transition as a maladaptive coping mechanism; and that careful evaluation is essential to protect patients from the clinical harms of overtreatment and undertreatment.
On a similar note, a number of studies have found that around 85% or so of transgender teens ultimately go on to accept their birth gender. I would agree with that, because it’s something I went through, many years I was sure I should have been born the opposite gender, but now I understand, nah, I’m cool with who I am, my gender is not my personality. It’s about self acceptance. Everyone questions who they are as a teen.
And that’s not saying some people are not truly trans, they are indeed. But there is an unexplained explosion in people saying they are trans.
And I feel that this study has been attacked because it is challenging the narrative the trans lobby is trying to push. Transgenderism is becoming a fashion and a political ideology. It is a medical condition.
And that’s the conspiracy. Peer reviewed scientific research is being sent down the memory hole because it does not fit a political ideology. Science is being silenced to save peoples feelings.
And that’s just outrageous.
Posted from Alt account for obvious reasons.