Littman, L. (2018) — Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria (PLOS ONE)
In August 2018, physician-researcher Lisa Littman published the article Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria in the journal PLOS ONE. It is the study that brought the term rapid-onset gender dysphoria to prominence.
Littman distributed an online questionnaire containing 90 questions through three websites where parents discussed the subject. She analyzed 256 completed questionnaires from parents whose children appeared to develop rapid-onset gender dysphoria during or after puberty.
Key points
The young people described had an average age of 16.4, and 82.8 percent had been assigned female at birth. According to their parents, 62.5 percent had previously received a psychiatric diagnosis. In 86.7 percent of cases, the dysphoria coincided with increased social media use, friends who identified as transgender, or both. Littman presents the findings as hypotheses about social influence and coping mechanisms and calls for further research involving young people, parents, and healthcare providers.
Study design and participants
The questionnaire was open from June 29 to October 12, 2016. The three websites were 4thWaveNow, Transgender Trend, and Youth Trans Critical Professionals. Of the parents who responded, 91.7 percent were women and 66.1 percent were between the ages of 45 and 60. More than 70 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher, and 71.7 percent lived in the United States. The study received ethical review at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Littman reports that she received no specific funding for the study. More information about the researcher is available at Lisa Littman.
Additional findings
According to 80.9 percent of the parents, their child's disclosure came as a surprise. In 80.4 percent of cases, there had been no signs of gender dysphoria during childhood according to the DSM-5. After the disclosure, mental well-being declined according to 47.2 percent of the parents, and the relationship between parent and child deteriorated in 57.3 percent of cases.
The correction and the criticism
Within two weeks of publication, PLOS ONE announced a new review of the methodology and analyses. In the corrected version published on March 19, 2019, the title, abstract, introduction, discussion, and conclusion were revised, while the results remained unchanged. Since then, the text has explicitly stated that the report generates hypotheses and does not confirm the phenomenon. In September 2018, the professional association WPATH stated that the term was not recognized by any professional association. A more extensive discussion can be found in the article about the Littman study.
Why it is included in this archive
The study is based exclusively on reports from parents and is controversial. In March 2019, PLOS ONE published a correction to the article. In the timeline on this site, the publication appears under Littman publishes ROGD paper. It remains a frequently cited source in the debate about young people and gender dysphoria.