Social transition in young trans people accessing gender-affirming care.

Cross-sectionalInternational journal of transgender health· 2026

Social transition in young trans people accessing gender-affirming care.

Pip Buckingham, Michelle A Tollit, Grace Wong … Ken C Pang

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Adolescent MedicineCross-sectionalQ1IF 12.6

Most young people at a pediatric gender clinic expressed preferences to socially transition by changing their name

Social transition in young trans people accessing gender-affirming care.

Pip Buckingham … Ken C Pang

International journal of transgender health · 2026 · Q1 in General Medicine

Background

In-depth quantitative study of how young people undertake social transition is lacking.

Purpose

We aimed to provide a comprehensive profile of social transition among young people accessing gender-affirming care.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study ( n = 482), young people aged 8-17 years completed online questionnaires before their first appointment at a pediatric gender clinic.

n = 482

Results

89.6%

of young people wanted to change their name, though far fewer had done so in every setting

n = 482

More results

Compared to presentation (74.4%), fewer young people had changed their name (45.8%) or pronouns (44.1%) across all the examined contexts.

Overall, there were 129 unique patterns of social transition across contexts, highlighting the heterogeneous nature of social transition.

More results

Most young people reported being concerned about socially transitioning (88.8%), with the most prevalent concerns related to bullying, prejudice or discrimination (59.5%).

“

Conclusion

Understanding these nuanced patterns of social transition is necessary to improve clinical care and develop relevant policies and guidelines.

Social transition in young trans people accessing gender-affirming care.

Social transition in young trans people accessing gender-affirming care.

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